


Blood Moon

by iluvmyterrier, Lainie (mislainieous)



Category: Finder no Hyouteki | Finder Series
Genre: A little smexy fun time, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alternate Universe - Shapeshifters, Animal Attack, Bloodshed, Explicit Language, Gen, Human Consumption, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Male Slash, Mates, Other, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Punishment, Seriously; ice ages have moved faster, Slow Burn, Spanking (NOT the fun kind), Torture, Violence, Wolf Pack
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-03-18
Updated: 2018-10-06
Packaged: 2018-10-07 08:49:53
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 18
Words: 68,602
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10356690
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/iluvmyterrier/pseuds/iluvmyterrier, https://archiveofourown.org/users/mislainieous/pseuds/Lainie
Summary: When Takaba Akihito, a naive but feisty 23 year old novice freelance photographer investigating criminal activity on Japan's underworld, comes across something he never expected to catch in his viewfinder, life as he knows it is about to change and a whole new world will be exposed that he never knew existed.





	1. I See a Bad Moon A-Rising

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I do not own the Finder no Hyouteki | Finder Series and do not make any profit from it. All rights belong to Ayano Yamane-sensei.
> 
> I am a huge fan of author J.D. Tyler and her Alpha Pack series. Here is a partial summary from the cover of her first book in series: "Founded by a group of former Navy Seals, the Alpha Pack is a top secret team of wolf shifters with PSY powers tasked with eliminating the most dangerous predators in the world. But the gift of their abilities comes at a price..." I have read all the books she has written to date, including her first m/m in the series which is called 'Phoenix Reborn'. I am anxiously waiting for her to publish the next one in series called 'Raven's Mark'. If you enjoy paranormal romances featuring hot, tattoed, and at times naked sexy hunks finding their soul mates, then I recommend you check this series out, and I hope you learn to love them as much as I do. 
> 
> I was inspired by her books, as well as reading many other shifter/soul mate stories here on A03, to try my hand at writing one of my own with all of our favorite Finder series characters created by Ayano Yamane.
> 
> This is my first attempt at writing any kind of story, so I am taking the plunge to be brave enough and give it a try. If it ends up a total disaster, then I will quit and just go back to reading and reviewing stories here instead of punishing readers with my horrible writing. I don't mind constructive criticism because it can be very helpful, but please don't be too cruel. I will greatly appreciate any feedback readers give me, along with ideas of how to write a better story and improve my writing. I have tons of ideas for Finder stories too, so just let me know and I will send you my plot bunnies and you can try and write them instead. If anyone is interested in helping me out with this story; with co-writing, editing and ideas, please email me.

I would like to give a quick shout out to the amazing Lainie, aka Lainie (mislainieous), for being so very kind and gracious to help me out with this story by proofreading and editing chapters, and fixing my horrible grammar mistakes. Thank you so very, very much!

Chapter 1:

_Late Friday evening_

  
Sneezing, Akihito gently wiped the moisture off the lens of his most treasured possession, the camera his late father had given him years before. It was a gift on his 17th birthday, and it's what got him started as a photojournalist. The rain had finally stopped falling, but the night was still damp and chilly. Aki could tell he was coming down with a head cold, but was determined to see this through and get the picture that would finally make his boss take him seriously. The man was kind enough, and in fact seemed almost like a Grandfather to him, and had even taken him under his wing as a protege. The only problem was that he wanted to protect him from the dangers the job could potentially pose, so usually he just sent him to take pictures of models and movie stars for the newspaper instead of any local criminal activity. Aki thought that was too boring and wanted something more challenging to do.

  
He was sick and tired of his fellow co-worker, Mitarai, always rubbing it in his face that he was nothing but a loser and should just quit before he embarrassed himself even more. Well, just wait, he would show him what he was capable of. After tonight, with the pictures he expected to get from this secret meeting between an up and coming new yakuza leader that recently began competing for territory in Tokyo city, and a prominent but dirty well-known politician, he would get a huge pay raise as well as a promotion.

  
He had staked out the area and found a convenient spot with a perfect vantage point for taking pictures from, and was hiding behind several large storage bins that were lined up next to one of the warehouses on the docks where the meeting was expected to take place. It was the perfect position for him to get the pictures he needed, for it gave him some coverage, both from being seen, and the wind blowing off the water, as his teeth were chattering enough already.

  
He pulled his jacket tighter around his lithe body and wrapped the scarf more securely about his neck. Relieved that he had also remembered to bring his cap along as added protection from the elements, he put it on over his wild mane of wispy, silvery light brown, almost blonde hair. Now, it was just a waiting game...

  
~~~~~

  
Hours later, Aki could barely keep his eyes open. He was burning up with fever and couldn't stop shivering. _’Damn it, I've got to get out of here, no one’s showing up, and I’m freezing to death. I guess my targets decided not to meet up. I’m gonna head home and take a nice long shower to warm up; that is, unless my landlord turned the water off for me being late paying the rent again. I should’ve hung out with Kou and Takato tonight, it would’ve been more fun than coming out in this weather and catching a cold.'_

  
He gathered up, then started to pack his gear, and was getting ready to put his camera in the bag when he heard footsteps approach, then voices. He quickly readied his camera and zoomed in on the direction the noises were coming from.

  
_’Is that who I think it is? But, who’s that other guy? Wow, this looks like it might turn out being an even better scoop than I thought.’_

  
~~~~~

  
“Asami Ryuichi, at last; it's a pleasure to finally meet you in the flesh. I must say, trying to get a meeting with you has been quite the experience. I have to give your secretary... what is his name again... Ah, yes, Kirishima Kei, isn't it? Yes, of course, how inconsiderate of me for nearly forgetting, since he was so very helpful in arranging this for me."

  
The man in the long dark trench coat with the hidden face had the most creepiest voice Aki had ever heard. He wished he could see his face, but it was hidden in the folds of his coat and dark shadows since the moon was now hidden behind some clouds. Which was weird, because it was a blood moon tonight, the first in centuries, and Aki had already got some great pictures of it with his camera.

  
"We all knew you were here in Japan, Marcus, so cut the bullshit and get to the real reason you wanted to see me after all this time."

  
"Ah, finally, that's the Asami I know and love."

  
Aki's eyes widened as a giant man with a short blond military hair cut stepped out of the shadows from behind Asami and in a threatening tone growled:

  
"Show our leader the respect he deserves, or I will tear your throat out where you stand."

  
"Stand down, Suoh, I can handle him."

  
"My apologies, Asami-sama."

  
Bowing, he melted back into the shadows where he’d come from and all became quiet again. Aki hadn't even seen him on the dock, and wondered how many other men could be hidden in the shadows that he couldn't see through his viewfinder due to the cover of darkness.

  
"You disappoint me, Asami. I would have thought you would trust an old friend, even after all this time."

  
"I have more important business to conduct tonight, so tell me why you wanted to see me or I will cut this meeting short and have my men escort you back to hell."

"Ha, ha, ha...."

It actually sounded somewhat like a bark, and Aki shook his head to try and clear his ears.

  
"Alright, but you disappoint me. I wanted to play with you a bit before getting to the true reason for my visit."

  
"I don't have time for your pathetic little games Marcus, so tell me now or I am ending this meeting."

  
"War is coming to Japan, Asami, and there is no stopping it."

  
Golden eyes narrowed. "What are you saying?"

  
"The time has come to choose sides and make a stand. It has started: the whole world will fall and its humans will either be killed; that is, if they are lucky enough, or made into slaves, maybe worse."

  
Aki blinked his eyes. _‘What the heck is going on? I really must be sicker than I thought and can't be hearing this right.’_

  
"Do you have proof? I won't make a rash decision just based on your word."

  
Throwing back the hood of his jacket, and with his back still to Aki, the man pulled a disk from his pocket and handed it to Asami.

  
"This is all the proof you will need. After you view it, contact me. You do know how to reach me, don't you?"

  
"I will be in touch."

  
Turning, the man's face was revealed to Aki and he let out a loud gasp, almost dropping his camera. His face was hideously disfigured by long deep gashes that looked like they were made by claws, and one eye was missing; there was an empty, stitched-up socket where it should have been.

  
Stopping, the man sniffed the air and actually huffed.

  
"Looks like we have company."

  
"Get out of here, I will deal with our visitor. Just stay in hiding until we can safely talk."

  
Nodding his head, he took another sniff before leaving.

  
"Whoever it is, they smell quite delicious. Be sure to save some of it for dessert so I can taste it at our next meeting."

  
He was gone before Aki even saw where he went.

  
_’Shit, I've got to get out of here!’_

  
Knowing there was no way to avoid it, and relying on his small size and parkour skills, Aki made a mad dash for the alleyway on the other side of the dock where he was hoping to climb one of the brick buildings to get away.

  
"Stop him!" Asami barked orders to his men who magically seemed to appear from where they were hiding in the shadows around him. There was four of them, including the giant one called Suoh. They split up and went in different directions, trying to cut him off before he reached his destination, but they didn't expect him to drop and effortlessly roll across the wooden planks then disappear into the narrow entrance of the alleyway.

  
"Wait!" Asami ordered, then smirked; licking his teeth, he said "Leave him to me."

  
His men obediently halted and bowed their heads in respect to their leader.

  
"Go home. I will deal with our little guest."

  
"Are you sure, Sir?” Suoh asked.

  
"Yes, my friend. I haven't had a good hunt in years, and have missed it."

  
"Let's get out of here and back to our families. I will see you in the morning, Boss."

  
Suoh went with the other guards and Asami was left alone, standing on the dock.

  
Removing his clothes, he neatly folded them into a pile and placed them on an empty storage container with his shoes. The clouds moved away from the moon and he lifted his head to look at it. His golden eyes started turning brighter, and then he howled.

  
Aki was nearly to the top of the building when he heard it and almost lost his grip, but stopped himself from falling, managing to pull himself up and over the ledge of the roof.

  
"What the hell was that?"

  
Running across the rooftop, he reached the door and tried to open it, but it was locked.

  
_‘Crap! I gotta find somewhere to hide in case they follow me up here. Why did I have to drop my cell phone; but at least I still have my camera.’_

  
Looking around, he saw a grate covering a small drainage basin in the flat roof and ran over to try and lift it up. Luckily, it wasn't too difficult and he crawled down into it, pulling the grate back down over the opening and hid in the darkness, clutching his precious camera in his hands. Closing his eyes, he cowered into a small ball and waited.

  
Golden eyes narrowed as his nose sniffed the air. ‘He's close by, somewhere, I can smell him. He's afraid, alone, and he's sick.’

  
Grinning, he leapt over the top of the ledge and looked around the rooftop. ‘Hmm, where is he hiding? Playtime is going to be fun.’ He had transformed back to his human form to climb the building, but now thought it would be a good time to change again so he could locate his prey more easily. His wolf awoke and took control of his body, shifting limbs and bones into a huge, black, long haired wolf with golden eyes.

  
Asami still had control, but his wolf's spirit was itching to get to the surface. Dropping his snout to the floor, he followed the scent over to a grate-covered hole.

  
Howling once more, he stopped and sniffed the grate, then called down into it.

  
"It's time to come out and play with the big bad wolf, little kitten."

TBC


	2. I See Trouble on the Way

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I do not own the Finder no Hyouteki | Finder Series and do not make any profit from it. All rights belong to Ayano Yamane-sensei.
> 
> Thank you from the bottom of my heart to all of you who have reviewed, left kudos, bookmarked and subscribed to my first story ever! I am super happy that you all seem to like it and really appreciate your kind words, suggestions, and support. I hope you will continue to read along as story continues.
> 
> I did have trouble with this chapter and writing the dialogue between Asami and his wolf counterpart. If it's confusing, I am sorry and please feel free to offer any advice on how to fix it. When in wolf form, Asami can still talk as you have all found out. I am not sure whether this story will feature Mpreg, as I have no idea how to write it or whether any of you wants Aki to have Asami's pups. So, any help or thoughts are greatly appreciated just in case I decide to go that route. Oh, and updates will slow down a bit during the week because I have school and a part-time job.

Chapter 2:

Large, feverish, almond-shaped hazel eyes, surrounded by thick long eyelashes, looked up into the wolf's golden ones in fear as the boy tried to curl himself up further into a ball where it couldn't reach him.

_“I’m hearing things and must be hallucinating due to my fever, because wolves can't talk. At least a wolf… no, wait, it can't be a wolf, it must be a dog... yeah, whatever, it can't pull off the grate, and I should be safe. It will get tired of hanging around and eventually leave, then I get to go home. Hey, wait a minute, how did a dog get on the roof ? Unless, it was already here because the door was locked... but... wouldn't I have seen it...? Nah, I’m hearing things; yup, that it's. I’m cold, tired and hungry too. I wish I had some more pocky in my pocket.”_

Aki didn't realize he was talking out loud due to his fever, but the wolf, and Asami, were hearing every single word coming out of those plump red lips.

 _’Mine’_ , growled the wolf in Asami's mind.

Asami was having trouble getting his wolf back under control, which had never happened in their long lifetime together. He was trying to transform back into his human form, but his wolf was resisting.

_’Let me out NOW, or...’_

_’Or, what, Asami? What are you going to do? I am part of you. You can't live without me and you know it. If I were to die, then what would happen to you? Ah, don't give me that look. We both know how this works, so shut up and stop threatening me.’_

_’You can't tell me to shut up. I am the dominant one in this relationship, or have you forgotten that?’_

_’Bah, you like to think that you are, but I know the truth. It's just you who can't accept it.’_

The beast was actually arguing with him! Well, that was a first, and one he would have to put an end to.

_’Enough! Let me turn back now, and I will give you a nice juicy steak when we get back to the penthouse.’_

_’Bribery won't work with me, and you can't hurt him, I won't let you; besides, he belongs to me.’_

Asami finally managed to get control back from his wolf and found himself standing naked on top of the rooftop again. Stretching his muscles, he sniffed the air and closed his eyes. When in human form, he could maintain more self-control over his wolf and was able to block out his thoughts most of the time. _‘How dare he try and tell me what to do, the mangy mutt.’_ Asami mentally felt a bite and swore at his wolf.

Smirking, he sniffed the air again; _’Oh, but he does smell delicious. I wonder if he tastes as delectable as he looks. I will soon find out…’_

Aki was trembling in fear and getting colder by the minute. He couldn't stop sneezing either and just wanted to get back home and into his warm bed. _’I need some sort of weapon, just in case I have to fight, let me see...’_ He used his left hand to feel around and came across what felt like a crowbar. _’Yes’_ , he mentally fist pumped and clutched the life saver tightly in his hand. _’I’m ready for you... Now, I just have to take a peek and make sure it's gone, then I can get out of here.’_

Peeking through the grate, Aki couldn't hear or see anything, but that didn't mean danger wasn't lurking around the corner; so he waited a few more minutes, and then using his fingers, pried it open and as quietly as possible pushed it aside. Grabbing his backpack with his camera, he put it over his shoulder and pulled himself up and onto the rooftop with the crowbar still clutched safely in his fist.

Taking a deep breath, he got to his knees and slowly pushed himself to his feet. He stood in place, swaying weakly for a moment, then with a determined look on his face turned to look around. Not seeing anything, he began making his way over to the edge of the roof to try and find a safe place to climb back down. Hearing a tsking sound coming from somewhere behind him where the building's chimneys were, Aki stopped dead in his tracks.

_‘Oh oh...This isn't good...’_

"Going somewhere, my little kitten?" a smooth, silky voice asked from the dark shadow.

_‘Dammit, why did that voice have to sound so soft and sexy as hell. He's a guy's wet dream come to life, and he wants to kill me. What the heck is wrong with me?! Be brave Aki, you know what you have to do. Don't let him get your guard down, or it will be over for you and you are not ready to die yet.’_

"Asami Ryuichi!"

"Oh, you have heard of me. I am very flattered. It's too bad we couldn't have met under much different circumstances though. I am afraid I can't let you go. If you weren’t such a nosy little brat, and didn't spy on my meeting, I would let you live. But now I can't, especially after what you saw and heard at the docks. I doubt anyone would believe you though, but I can't take that chance. There are too many lives at risk."

He stepped out from behind one of the chimneys and slowly stalked towards where Aki was standing with his back towards the edge of the roof.

_‘What a beauty this boy is. I would love to get him in bed just once before I enjoy my meal. It's going to be such a waste, what a pity. He is perfection in every way. Yes, I think I will take him and then kill him afterwards. It's been a long night and I need some entertainment.’_

Aki's eyes were nearly bulging out of his head at the sight of the naked Adonis slowly and proudly walking towards him, ready to pounce. He was a striking figure to look at. Something out of ancient Greek mythology. He couldn't stop staring at those toned muscles, thighs and 8 pack abs. Glancing down, he nearly fainted at what lay between those two long legs. ‘Oh my gawd, he is humongous!’

Squeaking like a mouse caught in a trap, Aki started to backpedal without looking behind him.

"Going somewhere, kitten?"

Glaring at him, Aki kept one hand hidden behind his back.

"I am not a kitten, you yakuza bastard!"

_’Oh, he has a temper, I like that. It makes the conquest more challenging. Look at his eyes, so beautiful and sparkling with fire. Oh, this is going to be more fun than I thought.’_

"Achoo!"

"Bless you, kitten."

"Shut up, you smug bastard!"

Seeing the unnatural golden eyes narrow, Aki realized how much danger he really was in and knew he had to get the hell out of there, and fast. He slowly crept backwards ‘til his back hit the edge, and using his right hand, held on tight while still clenching the crowbar in his left one.

As he got closer to Aki, Asami asked him “So, are you going to be a polite little boy and tell me your name before we get better acquainted?"

"Not during your lifetime, old man!"

Asami felt his eye twitch. _’How dare the brat insult and disrespect me in that way! Oh, this is going to be so much fun. I will teach him; just wait ‘til I get him to the secret room at the penthouse. He will be begging for death before it's over, but I am going to make him suffer, very slowly.’_

In anger, and without thinking, Asami leapt forward to grab the little runt but wasn't prepared for what happened next! Dropping instantly to the roof, howling in pain due to the severe agony between his legs.

"Gotcha, you smug bastard!"

He watched as the boy dropped the bar, turned and jumped over the ledge. Due to his quick healing abilities, Asami was able to crawl over to the edge. Looking over, he expected to see the boy's bloody body splattered on the pavement below. Growling in frustration at the loss of his entertainment and tasty meal, he glared down the side of the building.

"What the hell!" Asami swore.

Looking back up at him and swinging from a pole like a little monkey, the boy smiled and stuck his pink little tongue out at him before disappearing from view.

~~~~~

Aki unlocked the door to his apartment and stumbled in, slamming the door behind him.

"Home sweet home."

He grabbed a bottle of water and headed for the bathroom to take a long-deserved hot shower, then climbed into his small bed and was asleep before his head hit the pillow.

~~~~~

Golden eyes watched the small figure through his window on the second floor, then laid down and patiently waited.

TBC

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In case anyone is wondering, with Asami's shifter abilities and immortal life, he can heal faster. Oh, he can be killed too, though, but I won't say how just yet. Trying to figure that one out, lol. I hope you enjoy, and will try and get the next chapter up sometime during the week. Thanks for reading!


	3. Don't Go Round Tonight

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We toyed with the idea of naming the different chapters after lines from the song "Bad Moon Rising" by Creedence Clearwater Revival.

A wild mop of unruly hair, sticking up in all directions, peeked out from under a pillow as one hazel eye popped open, warily looking around the room in confusion. Groaning and closing his eye, he stuck his head back under the pillow as he clumsily reached one arm towards the table next to his bed where he thought the sound was coming from, but then remembered the night before and how he had lost his only cell phone. _’Aw crap, I’m gonna have to buy a new one now_.’

 

It wasn't the usual vibrating sound from the nightstand that had woke him, but a loud banging on his front door. Yawning, he pushed himself up and sat on the side of the bed for a minute, first rubbing his head, making his hair even messier, and then the sleep from his eyes, trying to wake himself up.

 

He heard a loud voice yell through the door: “Yo, Aki-chan! What are you up to, bro?"

 

Looking at the clock on his nightstand, he saw that it was nearly noon time. _’Shit! I overslept! I’m gonna be late for work!’_

 

Jumping up, he ran towards the bathroom, tripped over his backpack and went flying face first onto the hard wood floor.

 

"Ow!!"

 

"Hey, Aki, what’s that noise? You alright in there?!"

 

Stunned for a minute, Aki lay face down on the floor, trying to regain his senses and figure out what the hell happened, then sat up and cried out in a panicked voice ”Oh no, my camera!"

 

Crawling over to the bag, he unzipped it and pulled his camera out, then sighed in relief seeing it wasn't broken. It was then that he remembered it was Saturday and he didn't have to go in to work today.

 

Standing back up, he gently put the camera down on the middle of his bed, then walked out of his bedroom, went by the tiny kitchenette and out through the small living room to open the front door before his landlord came yelling and threatening to evict him again. Opening it, his two best friends Kou and Takato rushed in, nearly knocking him over in their haste to see if he was alright.

 

"What happened to your face!?"

 

"Yea, you have a black eye and bruised chin!"

 

Kou and Takato both exclaimed at the same time before one went to the mini refrigerator in the kitchenette to get some ice and the other led him gently by the arm to sit on the sofa in the middle of the room.

 

"I am fine guys. I just tripped over my bag in the bedroom. I was sleeping and panicked that I was going to be late for work again."

 

"You're very lucky you didn't break your nose." Kou commented.

 

Aki gratefully took the towel wrapped around some ice and held it against his face, closing his eyes so he didn't see the worried looks exchanged between his two friends.

 

"So, watcha guys up to?"

 

"Takato got free tickets from his boss to that popular club in Azabu called Dracaena for tonight and we want you to go with us."

 

"Yeah. You’ve been working way too hard and getting stressed lately, so we thought you needed a break, and I've been wanting to check this place out for ages but couldn't afford the tickets. I was talking about the club to a co-worker one day and my boss overheard us. He gave them to me for coming up with that new computer game I developed a few months ago that's been selling like crazy; he had to hire more workers to keep up with the overflow of orders they’re receiving. The company is really raking in the money from it. Oh and I, by the way, also got a promotion and huge pay raise from it.”

 

Before Takato could even finish the sentence, Aki jumped up and hugged him so tight he could hardly breathe.

 

"That's wonderful news! You deserve it, I’m so happy for you!"

 

"Now, you are going out with us tonight to celebrate, and that's final. It‘ll be good for you to just let go and dance some of that stress away."

 

"Hey Takato, don't forget the drinking and cute girls we’re going to meet there and hopefully leave with...” Kou chirped in with a wide and goofy grin on his face.

 

After the crappy night he’d had and nearly being killed by, Aki was so ready to have some fun and forget all about his troubles. He would look at and edit the pictures he took the next day before he gave them to his editor at the paper.

 

"Ok, what're you guys wearing?"

 

"No, what's more important is what are we going to do about your face, dude?"

 

"Kou...” Aki yelled, loud enough to wake the dead.

 

***********

 

_Sion Corporation_

 

The large room was filled with smoke and the strong smell of Dunhill cigarettes. The three men seated around the conference table had just viewed a video showing some very disturbing information.

 

"Do you think it's true, Asami-sama?” Asami's assistant Kirishima asked with worry in his voice, removing his glasses and wiping them off before putting them back on his face.

 

"It certainly looks real enough to be legitimate, but knowing Marcus as well as I do, it could be one of his very sick and twisted games. If it is, I don't know what he's playing at, but he really must be bored and have a death wish. I don't have time for his bullshit;  I will be only too happy to oblige him with a very slow and tortuous death should this turn out to be false information. It would be fun to play with my knife collection again so soon."

 

Suoh and Kei eyed each other uncomfortably. It was never good news when their boss brought up his knives in discussion. It always meant for a messy clean up for them both afterwards.

 

Leaning back in his chair, Asami, with another Dunhill dangling from his lips, pulled both his Ceska Zbrojovka as well as his Beretta 9mm from his shoulder holsters.

 

Kei stood up and moved over to him, handing him a small kit containing his oil and cleaning tools.

 

As he began expertly dismantling his handguns for cleaning, Asami started issuing orders to his most trusted men, both of whom he knew since childhood.

 

"Kei, I don't want it leaked out and cause unneeded panic for our people, so I want you to take the disk and have our best team analyze it to make sure what we saw on it is legitimate. You will personally be responsible, and be the one in charge of overseeing this particular operation. As soon as you find out anything of importance, let me know, no matter what the time."

 

"Hai, Asami-sama."  Standing up, his assistant picked up the disk and left the room at a brisk pace.

 

"Prepare the limo, Suoh. I have another important matter to deal with tonight that demands my immediate attention."

 

Suoh stood up and started to walk away, then stopped and turned around. “Boss, what about that brat from last night?"

 

Looking up, Asami smirked, picking up a cell phone in a "My Little Kitty" case off the table, and answered him.

 

"I have some very special plans for a particular little kitten."

 

Grimacing, then looking at his boss like he had just gone crazy, the giant blond shook his head and left the room in a hurry to carry out his orders. He didn't want to stay and find out the details.

 

*********

 

_Club Dracaena_

 

Aki, Kou and Takato were standing on the sidewalk near the curb, in the long line outside of the club as it inched along, still waiting to get inside. Aki could hear the loud music and was practically bouncing on his feet, wanting to get in so he could get on the dance floor. Takato was right, he did love to dance. Dancing was where he could express his emotions and let go with no restraints. When he danced, the world around him ceased to exist and it was just him alone on the floor, eyes closed and moving his body to the beat of the music.

 

"Wow, look at what just pulled up!” Kou said, pointing his finger at a large black limousine that had windows darkened for privacy. “I wonder whether there’s anyone famous in it."

 

They would never find out as a large crowd gathered in front of them, blocking their view, and security formed a cordon to keep the crowd back, which in turn pushed the three friends even further away.

 

"Hey, watch it!" Aki, Takato and Kou all yelled when they were almost forced onto the street and into oncoming traffic.

 

Whoever was in the limo was whisked into the club, surrounded by security, then the line reformed and started moving again.

 

An hour later, they finally got to the head of the line, pulled out their tickets and showed their identification. The security guard at the door did a double-take of Akihito's ID and looked at his face with a quizzical look before nodding his head and another guard opened the door for them to enter.

 

"Oh my gosh, this place is amazing, just like I imagined it to be. Hey, Aki, look at the girls watching us over there.” Kou had to yell to be heard over the loud music blaring out of the numerous speakers around the club.

 

"Come on, let's get a table first, then hit the bar and then the dance floor.” Takato called as his friends eagerly chased after him, trying not to lose sight of him in the crowd.

 

xxxxxx

 

"Asami, what a pleasant surprise. I wasn't expecting to see you this evening, and so soon again since our last meeting." Sudou Shuu all but purred as he walked up to greet his boss, getting much too close for the man’s comfort.

 

 _’Get him away before I maul his ugly face‘_ Asami's wolf growled. Asami kept his distance and stepped aside before the manager of one of his most popular clubs could touch him.

 

 _’That's better. Asami, you’d better stay away from him or you'll get contaminated. I can't stand his stench, and that cologne he sprayed all over himself makes him smell like a wet skunk. It’s enough to make me want to regurgitate on him. Did you know his hair is dyed blond, not natural like my little mate's?’_ Asami's inner wolf had been laying low since the night before, and was apparently still sulking from the boy getting away. This was one of those rare times that Asami actually didn't talk back to his wolf and just let him ramble on. He had too much on his mind right now to have another argument with him. It was bad enough that the usually dormant wolf seemed to have become unusually edgy and more talkative since the blood moon appeared the other night. In all the time they had been part of each other, he had never heard him go on in this way. ' _If you’d let me be the one in control last night, he never would have escaped. It's all your fault, you imbecile. At least I know where he lives, and when the time is right, we will pay him a little surprise visit.’_ ’

 

"Would you like to come to my office where we can... talk more privately, and not be disturbed?" The blond slut actually batted his false eyelashes at Asami, and had the gaul to reach up and touch him, putting his hand on Asami's shoulder, running it slowly down the length of his arm.

 

"Get your hand off of my arm before I break it. I have told you before, I am not interested, Sudou Shuu... You are not my type, and I am not attracted to you. I will not give you another warning."

 

Looking flustered, Sudou reluctantly removed his hand and stepped back, waiting for Asami to tell him why he had paid his club an unexpected visit.

 

"Why don't we go up into the control room so I can see what is going on in my club, up close and personal."

 

Sudou tensed up and got nervous, then started to try and stall him.

 

"Asami-san, you would be more comfortable in the VIP guest lounge. Yes, that's a wonderful idea; why don't we head there instead, and I could order you drinks and something to eat?”

 

_’He's hiding something, and is stupid enough to think you won't find out. Let me change, and I will find out quicker what it is. No, maybe not, I don't think I could stand sinking my fangs into him; the taste would be even worse than he looks, and it might actually be what could kill me,’_

 

"We will go to the control room. Now." Asami said, heading in that direction and didn't notice Sudou pushing a button on his watch.

 

xxxxxx

 

"I can't believe how busy this place is. I mean, I knew it would be by how popular it's become since it first opened a year or so ago, and hearing all the stories about it on the news, but experiencing it first hand is a different story!” Kou said, drinking some more beer and reaching for the fancy coated peanuts in the bowl on the table. “I think those girls are still watching us, too."

 

"In your dreams, Kou, they’re way out of our league, and in case you haven't noticed, they seem to already have boyfriends." Takato stated, patting him affectionately on the head and then turned to look at Akihito. “Hey, Aki, you haven't said much since we got here. Are you having a good time?"

 

He knew what their friend was looking at and was waiting to see what he would say. Turning his head, his hazel eyes were made more brilliant, almost like sparkling diamonds in the flashing lights, Aki laughed. Then, with a huge grin on his flushed face, he whooped.  “Let's dance!"

 

Jumping up, Akihito ran for the crowded dance floor. Following more leisurely behind him, his two friends lost sight of him among all the dancers.

 

"Not again..."

 

"Don't worry Kou, we’ll find him once he starts dancing; everyone will stop to watch him."

 

"I know, that's what worries me. One of these days he's going to attract the wrong kind of attention, and we won't be around to help keep an eye on him, or keep him out of trouble."

 

_Club Dracaena's Control Room_

 

Sudou reached the door first, pulling out a key and opening it for Asami, then stepped aside for him to enter the room. The inside was typical of what one would expect to see, but Asami's trained eyes were looking for something else. Seated with headsets on, were 10 men and 2 women working at their stations, monitoring the cameras in front of them. Multiple electronic displays and control panels were present, video surveillance and recording equipment for security purposes, and a large wall-sized display area visible from all locations. There was bullet proof dark-tinted windows surrounding the large room, overlooking the floors below from all sides where patrons and workers could be observed unnoticed.

 

Walking slowly around the busy room, Asami's eyes roamed every square inch of space, his sharp ears listened to the continuous chatter coming through the headsets, nose barely twitching. He walked behind one of the work stations and stopped.

 

"Well, well, what do we have here?"

 

The man seated in the chair panicked and jumped up with the intent to run out of the room. He was grabbed and thrown to the floor before he even got one step away from his chair.

 

"What is the meaning of this, Asami?!” Sudou cried out.

 

Two of Asami's men stormed into the control room, one grabbed Sudou while the other pulled the security officer by his arm, lifting him bodily up off the floor.

 

"Take him to warehouse 3”, Asami ordered the one holding the security officer. Then, turning to look at a clearly frightened Sudou Shuu, he told the other man “Bring him to my office at Sion. I will be joining you shortly."

 

Sudou Shuu called out to Asami: “Why are you doing this? I haven't done anything wrong... you are making a huge mistake. If you think I have betrayed you, I can prove that I’m innocent!”

 

"Get him out of here” Asami barked to the guard and Sudou was literally dragged to the door, kicking and screaming obscenities at the man pulling him. With a quick punch to his chin, Sudou fell, was caught and efficiently tossed over the man’s shoulder then carried out of the room.

 

_’I must say, I enjoyed seeing that pathetic excuse of a man-whore getting what he deserved. I never thought he would shut up and I was starting to get a headache. Be sure to give that guard a pay raise. Now, let's go out and have some fun. I could use some exercise to burn off some energy before you go back to Sion.’_

 

Asami looked around the room, noticing the remaining security force in the room were still diligently working at their stations. It appeared they were not surprised by what had happened, and seemed quite relieved having Sudou Shuu out of the way.

 

"Call the main office for a replacement” Asami ordered the man sitting next to the empty work station, then turned to leave the room before being stopped by his growling wolf.

 

_’Look at the damned dance floor monitor, you fool, and get your bloody ass down there now!’_

 

Turning his head to the direction his wolf had snarled, golden orbs widened, then dangerously narrowed. He was gone and out the door without anyone seeing him leave.

 

TBC


	4. I See Bad Times Today

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you again to all who continue to support "Blood Moon" by reading and following it. As always, a special thank you to those of you who leave kudos and comments, as well as bookmark and subscribe to my story. I don't understand why though, my dashboard statistics show my story as having 37 bookmarks but only 23 are currently displayed. Oh, well, it doesn't matter, at least I know you like "Blood Moon". Thanks again for reading and I hope you enjoy this chapter.
> 
> A very special thank you to the amazing Lainie for helping me out with this story. 
> 
> Warning: attempted rape at the end of this chapter.

Kou and Takato pushed through the moving dancers, looking around for their friend. The bass was pumping, lights flashed on and off the dance floor, bodies grinding, it was overwhelming and intoxicating. They wanted to join in, but had to find Akihito first so they could be, in a weird sort of way, his bodyguards in case anyone got too touchy with him. It didn't happen all the time but usually there was at least one or two older men who wouldn't take no for an answer, and then the situation would escalate into an all out brawl. They were usually the ones that got thrown out of the clubs by the bouncers because no one believed them when they’d try and explain what had happened and that they were only trying to defend their friend.

"I think I saw him over there." Kou pointed to a spot and Takato saw a familiar looking head bouncing around amongst the group gathered at the center of the dance floor.

"Oh, yeah, that's definitely Aki."

"I know, you can't miss that messy mop of hair no matter how much he tries to tame it down."

"Come on, Kou, let's go dance."

"With ya, bro!"

They pushed and shoved their way through the tight group of dancers until they got to their friend's side.

"Akihito!"

"Hey, Aki!"

"Takato! Kou! About time you got here, I thought something happened to you guys."

"Well, if you didn't take off running from us...” Takato shoulder bumped Kou, stopping him in mid speech. "Oh, never mind Aki, let's get down and have some fun!"

Fist bumping each other, they followed Aki's lead and started dancing. If there was one thing they enjoyed the most together, besides drinking, eating and playing video games, it was watching Aki dance. Once he got started, it was contagious, and everyone in the room would always follow his lead. Dancing, to Aki, was like an art form and something he enjoyed doing more than anything else but photography. What was always first place in his heart though, were his family and closest friends; they were what meant more to him than anything in this world, and if necessary he would protect them with his life.

Akihito found a spot and closed his eyes, listening for a moment to the song playing, his head began bobbing up and down, then he started swaying his hips in sync with the music. As he began moving his arms and body to the beat, first slowly and sensually, then faster as the beat changed rhythm, his lithe, flexible figure became an instrument working through the sound of the music that was playing from the speakers, his body moved of it's own accord. He set the tone on the dance floor and attracted attention like moths to a flame. The evening out with his best friends was just beginning...

*****

"Hey, how about we stop and take a break for a while”, gasped a tired Takato over an hour later. "I’m working up a real thirst after that workout you gave us, Aki."

Kou agreed and then added "I wish I knew where you got all that energy from. I could sure use some of it."

Laughing, Aki grabbed them each by the hand and led them off the floor to the bar to get some drinks. "Come on. I don't want to be responsible for you two old men both passing out on me. Especially when the night is still young and we're just beginning to enjoy ourselves." 

  
Walking over to the counter, they ordered their drinks and while they waited for the bartender to make them, Takato offered to go and find them another table since the one they used before was taken by another group.

Aki leaned up against the bar and smiling, turned to look at Kou. "Having fun?"

"Hell ya. Who wouldn't."

"Here you go." The bartender finished, smiling, and handing them their drinks. After thanking him, paying for their order, and leaving a tip in the jar on the counter, they headed over to where Takato was waiting for them.

Aki didn't see the figure moving up on him from the side until it was too late. By then he was on his ass, his drink all over the expensive suit on the furious looking guy standing directly in front of him.

"Hey, what the hell, dude! Why don't you watch what you're doing?" Kou yelled, bending down to try and help Akihito stand up, which was difficult to do with a drink in one of his hands and a crowd forming around them to see what was going on.

"Why don't you watch where you're going, punks! Your kind don't belong here in a club like this and we don't take kindly to the likes of you being here either."

"Hey, what do you mean by that?" Kou demanded.

"Just ignore him Kou. It's not worth a fight over. We’re here to have a good time, and Takato worked hard to get the tickets to this place, so come on, let's just go." Aki said, standing up, even though he wanted to bash the guy's face in for insulting him and Kou. But, he didn't want a confrontation to ruin an otherwise enjoyable evening out with his friends.

"Hey, wait a minute. You two aren't going anywhere, not until you give me money to have this suit cleaned. I’m good friends with the manager of this club, and he won't stand for this kind of behavior from his patrons or wannabes like you."

The bartender walked up behind them and parted the crowd. "Hey, I saw the whole thing. You deliberately got in their way and he didn't see you. If you cause any more trouble, I’ll call the bouncers and they’ll throw your ass out of this club. It's your kind we don't need here, buddy." Everyone watching cheered the bartender and applauded. The man glared, but knew he was outnumbered, so he walked away, giving them a dirty look.

"Geez, thanks man." Aki said as both he and Kou shook his hand in gratitude for helping them out.

"Yeah, it's no problem. I see his kind here all the time, trying to cause trouble, but the club's manager doesn't do anything about it. They shouldn't even allow him in here and I don't know why they do. Just be careful, because the bouncers tend to conveniently turn a blind eye around here, and sometimes bad things happen. I wouldn't even be working here, but I need the money to support my family." He started to head back to the bar but turned around and told Aki he would send another drink over to their table, on the house.

"Wow, that was really a great thing he did for us." Aki agreed with Kou and they went to join Takato.

"I saw what happened and was coming over to help, but then the bartender stepped in and I didn't want to lose our table. I noticed him watching you and wondered what he was up to."

Akihito and Kou sat down and a waiter came over with Aki's drink. Leaning back in their chairs, they sipped and chatted awhile before heading back onto the dance floor.

*****

As the evening wore on, the floor was getting even more crowded as individuals, groups of friends, and couples flitted around trying to find a space to dance. It was becoming even more difficult for the three friends to maneuver around and remain close together. The atmosphere was mesmerizing with all the sweating bodies on the floor and the flashing lights.

"Hey, if we get separated, give it about 15 minutes and then let’s meet back at the bar to regroup." Takato yelled over the noise.

"Yeah, that sounds like a plan." Kou agreed, yelling back.

Aki, his eyes closed, swaying to the music, nodded his head in agreement.

*****

"So, you know what you have to do?" The man asked, handing over an envelope filled with cash to four burly-looking men. They were standing in a dark smoked-filled corner of the lounge, and it was noisy and dim enough that no one could hear their discussion or see what they were doing.

The leader of the group, a brutish looking guy with a jagged scar on his cheekbone, sneered and nodded his head. "We're going to teach some disrespectful little twinks a lesson in manners and the meaning of what a real man is. At the same time, hopefully, getting us some young sweet pieces of ass for ourselves."

"I haven't had a piece that tasty looking in a very long time”, one of his goons added.

"Yeah, I wouldn't mind sinking my teeth in and biting off a piece of that ass in those tight jeans, the blond one shaking his all over that dance floor like he owns it”, another one said.

"Just remember not to mention me, you got that?"

"Yeah, yeah, we got that, right, don't you worry about it."

The man in the stained suit looked at them doubtfully, and hoped he wasn't making the biggest mistake of his life. These guys were dangerous and he didn't want the kids killed, just taught a lesson. But, it was too late to back out now, they’d made a deal and sealed it with money. It was a done, no matter the consequences, and he shivered when he felt a sudden chill come over him.

"Well, just remember, you're not supposed to kill them, just teach them a lesson. I don't want it traced back to me, and don't do anything …” he stopped talking as he watched the men he’d hired walk away without listening. Maybe he’d better leave in case anyone had seen him talking with them. Just in case, he’d call his friend Sudou Shuu in the morning to make sure his own ass was covered from any fallout.

*****

Akihito was lost in his own world, dancing his heart out with the crowd and enjoying every minute of it. He knew his friends worried about him and loved them for it, but wished they wouldn't be so overly protective of him. They saw him as their kid brother, one who always attracted trouble, but he could handle himself in most situations should the need arise. Sometimes, their constant hovering over him made him feel like he was being smothered inside, and he felt trapped. He knew he shouldn't do it, but he deliberately moved about until they lost sight of him again.

He threw his long, slender arms up in the air, waving them back and forth in motion along with the other dancers surrounding him, in time with the music they were swaying to. Tossing his head and body, he bent backwards, his loose-fitting designer black tee-shirt rose up, revealing his flat, softly toned stomach.

_**(The scene below is what Asami and his wolf saw happening on the monitor upstairs in the control room, but the perverted wolf had also been enjoying watching Aki dancing for some time before it happened.)**_

He didn't see the tall, bulky figure coming up behind him, roughly pushing other dancers near him out of the way, until he felt large rough hands cupping his ass in a brutal grip through his tight jeans. With an angry scowl on his face, Aki turned around to face his assailant with left fist cocked and ready to punch him in the face, only to find his wrist being grabbed and jerked backwards at a painful angle. On instinct, he raised his knee, aiming to hit the jerk between the legs but found himself spun around with his back flush against his attacker. Desperate, he threw his head backward, trying to hit his attacker in the neck or on the chin to make him let go, but was thrown forward, landing painfully on his knees, with his wrist still being held at an awkward angle up behind him.

"Shit...”

Aki heard a ‘pop’ and cried out. He was in pain and knew he was going to be badly bruised at the very least; his wrist was still being twisted and it felt like it had just been pulled out of it's joint socket. He closed his eyes, feeling nauseated and trying not to vomit all over the floor. He felt his hair being grabbed as he was pulled back up on to his feet, half dragged and half carried across the floor towards a back exit.

"Let me go you asshole!" Aki began thrashing and kicking, trying to get the brute to let him go, but it was useless. He was in too much pain from his broken wrist. It took all of his willpower and strength not to lose consciousness and become more of a victim to whatever this guy wanted to do with him. Now, he wished he wasn't so damned stubborn and lost his friends on the dance floor. He could sure use their help right now. Where were the bouncers of this club when he needed them?

"You and me are going to have us some fun in the back alley behind this place where we won't be disturbed. I am gonna teach you a lesson in humility and how not to mess with the wrong people."

*****

Takato and Kou found themselves facing three guys who were surrounding them, looking ready for a fight.

"Where did that guy take Aki?" Kou whispered to his friend.

"I don't know, but it looked like they were heading for the exit at the back of the building."

"We gotta help him."

"I know, and we will, but right now we have our own hands full of trouble."

Standing back to back, the two friends raised their fists, ready to fight no matter what, and both prayed Aki would be safe until they could help him.

*****

Aki gasped as he was thrown face first against the brick wall, barely stopping himself from dropping to the ground. He knew his face was now going to be bruised along with the rest of his body.

"Why are you doing this?" he gasped, trying to turn around but couldn't, due to the hand pushing him roughly back up against the wall.

"Somebody you messed with earlier tonight paid me big bucks to teach you and your little friends an important lesson in manners. After getting a look at you, I couldn't refuse; I’m only too happy to comply."

"Where are my friends!?”

"Oh, I wouldn't worry too much about them, I’d be more concerned about your pretty little self. They’re in good hands right about now, so stop talking so we can get down to business."

Aki cried out as he felt rough hands come around his waist, unbuckling his jeans, pulling the zipper down. He violently struggled, trying to get loose and fight back, but he was as helpless as a newborn pup due to his injuries. When he felt his jeans being pulled down his legs, he began screaming for help but a large hand covered the lower half of his face and he soon found a piece of cloth forced into his mouth and another piece tied over it to keep it firmly in place.

"No more yelling for you."

Tears started falling from Aki's blurred eyes, courtesy of the hit on the head he got when he hit the brick wall. He was sure he had a concussion on top of everything else. ‘I don't want this! I want my first time to be special and with somone I love... who loves me... not like this.’

He heard and felt the man behind him unzipping his own pants and then felt the guys balls rubbing up against his ass cheeks.

"Let's get down to it now so afterwards, we can play some more."

‘Nooooo...’ Aki moaned pitifully into the gag and closed his eyes, begging for this nightmare to just end. He thought it would be better for him to die then be subject to this kind of torture. He felt his rapist rubbing his slick up and down his crack, then a hand reach around his waist, grabbing him and causing such excruciating pain, it made him scream, the sound muffled by the gag. It was disgusting and degrading, he felt so dirty but knew the worst of it wasn't even over.

"Please, no...." He whispered.

He thought he heard a door crash open somewhere and then snarling and growling but he was sure it was his imagination, possibly from the trauma he was suffering. Then everything went dim and he submitted to the darkness engulfing him.

*****

He woke to the feeling of being carried and held close, nestled in warm strong arms that were securely wrapped around his body. For the first time in a long time, he felt content and safe. What happened... where was he... who was holding him..., and why did he smell a very pleasing scent of sandalwood and cigarettes...?

"Kou...., Takato...?”

"Shhhh" A soothing, deep masculine voice whispered gently in his ear. It sounded familiar, but he couldn't remember why and was too tired to try and think.

"Your friends are safe, don't worry."

Hearing the voice gave him peace and with his eyes still closed, he drifted off to another world, dreaming about golden eyes and the moon.

 

TBC

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and the next one will be from Asami and his wolf's POV. We will find out what happens to Kou and Takato, as well as their attackers. Oh, and don't forget about Sudou and the guy in the stained suit who caused all this trouble for Aki and his friends. The next chapter will be rather bloody and violent, so those of you who wish to skip it can, then wait until I post the one after it.


	5. I Hear the Voice of Rage and Ruin

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We find out what Asami saw in the monitor to get so riled up. And we discover Akihito's fate. AND Asami's wolf gets kinda possessive. 
> 
>  
> 
> **WARNING: Scenes of Graphic Violence**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, it's Lainie. Since iluvmyterrier is a bit squeamish, I took over and wrote the chapter for her. So I've gotta warn you all again, it has GRAPHIC VIOLENCE in it. Skip it if you have triggers about inflicting pain, torture, blood or a human being eaten. Otherwise, grab a helmet and buckle up, it's going to get kinda bumpy...

When Asami saw the lump of ugliness that was heading toward the blond and the way he was focused on the boy, pushing aside those in his path the way an icebreaker broke its way through a pack of ice floes, he knew his wolf’s “mate” was in trouble. Predators recognized other predators. And even if that brute probably wasn’t thinking about killing the photographer, the ways in which the big man could brutalize the boy didn’t bear thinking about. 

Hitting near full stride as he exited the room, he barked at Kei and Kazumi in passing, startling Kirishima as he was finishing a phone call, slowing only for the tight turns on the short flights of stairs. He told the men on his heels that his lost prey from last night was on the dance floor, apparently with two others, and they were under attack. As he swept out into the lounge area, picking up other guards in his wake, his eyes narrowed as he saw a man in a bartender uniform charge out onto the dance floor. With his two friends and comrades at his side, the pack headed out. 

As they closed in on the disturbance ahead of them, they could see through the broken up crowd that the mixologist was down with one of a trio of toughs getting ready to punish him for his interference. As the hired goon was drawing his leg back to kick the downed man, Kirishima reached out and grabbed the back of his biker vest collar and hauled the man backward with one arm, tossing him to Suoh without a glance. 

The remaining pair of badasses were closing in on their intended victims, still back to back and ready to fight when Suoh grabbed a second male and held him up by the scruff of his neck, then bashed their heads together and dropping them like the sacks of shit they were. The remaining thug, seeing what had happened, tried to make a break for it, but was brought up short by a semi circle of Sion men confronting him. 

As Kirishima approached the young men slowly relaxing their guard as others of the men saw to the employee on the floor, he didn’t even get a word out to ask how they were when the dark-haired one pointed desperately towards the back exit and shouted that that’s where the big one that grabbed and hurt their friend took him. As Suoh started moving fast in that direction, Kirishima saw the large back of their leader disappear out the door.

Asami was moving fast with his troop towards the trouble on the floor when he caught a whiff of the boy’s scent from last night, with the overpowering smells of pain and desperation mixed in it, along with the excited, testosterone-laden scent of his aggressor. He veered away from the group, following the scent trail as a few of the younger security men peeled off to give him backup. 

Sensing the scent trail get stronger, he hastened towards the exit door in front of him, not paying heed to bystanders as he reached the door and pushed it open, smashing it into the cinder block wall behind it. Peeling off his jacket, vest and tie, his wolf forced the shift as he hurtled down the corridor, clothes peeling off in shreds as the muscular lupine form charged the outside fire door, hitting it full force with his shoulder as the metal door buckled and folded, slamming out of the way on a single hinge. 

Skidding to a halt, the wolf scanned the area, catching sight of the man who attacked and hurt his mate and dragged him out here, holding the limp body over his arm, the other hand ceased its groping of the blond’s privates as he stared in stunned disbelief at the menacing beast that just exploded out of the club. 

Even as he stood, pants partway down, hard on shrivelled, frozen in place, Asami leapt. Rigid front legs hit the male on his chest with his full weight even as he dropped the boy and tried to bring his arms up in defence. Driven down to the ground, he struggled to try and get back on his feet. Looking around wildly to see where the animal that attacked him was, he stayed down on his knees a second too long. 

A massive paw pushed him face down in the dirty alley as it moved and was joined by a second paw, both pinning the man beneath him by the shoulders as the snarling beast looked over at the blond crumpled in a pile, battered and unmoving. His lips pulled back further and his head moved in as the canine teeth punctured the skin at the back of the male’s neck, anchoring in skin and tissue, then gripped as he pulled his massive head back, slowly peeling off skin, the fat layer and the trapezius muscle from the back of the shrieking man’s neck, spine and tearing it away from the shoulder blades. Dropping the large slab of bloody fat and meat, he stepped away from the screaming, writhing, gasping man as he glanced at his men leaving the broken doorway, some of whom were grinning as they started to remove and fold their suits. 

Paying them no mind, he moved over to his mate, sniffing to see where he had been touched and injured, nudging softly with his muzzle as the Asami part spoke of his concern that the boy was unconscious with a possible head injury. Agreeing that the blond needed medical attention, the wolf saw Suoh arrive on the scene, and told him to have Kirishima order the limo around to the mouth of the alley and wait for them street side, then let the boy’s friends know that he had been located and was being taken to a private medical center to be examined. If they wanted to wait for him, have one of the men drive them there and accompany them. Kirishima was to stay at the club and take over it’s management until the staff could be sorted out. 

The big man nodded as he slung his boss’ jacket over his arm, took out his phone and made the call. Meanwhile, as far as they could tell, the boy hadn’t been bodily harmed other than the wrist, some bruises and scrapes on his face. As Suoh came over and draped the jacket over the blond, Asami's wolf turned his attention back to the attacker, still laying on the pavement by the garbage bins, shivering in shock from the pain and blood loss. 

Rolling the large man over and ignoring the loud wail of anguish it caused, the wolf looked into the glazed eyes and asked him how he liked being the prey. Not really expecting an answer, he took a paw, dug the claws into the man’s stomach area and ripped, watching with satisfaction as more blood and body fluids spilled out through the shredded skin, abdominal wall, muscles and ruptured small intestines. 

Going back to over his boy, Asami took control and shifted. Not paying the least bit of attention to the dieing man thrashing about, sobbing in pain and fear as he tried to curl up and protect his midsection without usable arms, he nodded to the naked young men straining forward eagerly where they stood, and said “Finish him.” Released, they shifted and went at their victim, burying their snouts into the man’s wounds and tearing out mouthfuls, screams, snarls and growls filling the air behind him.

Kneeling down, he looked at the boy, taking in the disheveled fair hair, the soft lips, the long lashes and the fine tone of what he could see of that athletic body. Gently putting the boy's clothes back to rights, he carefully worked his hands under the photographer’s back and knees, and cautiously picked him up, tucking him up against his chest, wondering if these vague urges of protectiveness he felt came solely from his wolf. While he still was definitely interested in playing with the blond, he wasn’t leaning towards dispatching him as soon as he was done with him as much as he was the night before. Pondering how watching the boy escape him last night could change his mind, he stood and seeing Suoh take off his own jacket, he waited as the big man draped it over his shoulders, covering him up, then adjusted Asami’s jacket over the boy to keep him warm. 

Leading his friend away from the club, Suoh stayed in front of his boss, keeping a sharp eye out for trouble as he blocked the view of his boss from passers by. 

The blond in his arms stirred, squinted up at them, and murmured “Kou…,Takato…?”

The wolf, flushed with protectiveness and feeling he had fought for his mate and triumphed, cooed to the smaller boy in their arms comfortingly. “Shhhhh”, he whispered in a soothing tone. “Your friends are safe, don’t worry.”

Asami was a bit worried, however, when the blond slipped back into unconsciousness. Approaching the waiting limo, he climbed into the back seat through the door held open for him, noting that Kirishima had arranged for the clothing bag with his replacement suit to be put back there with him. As Suoh settled in front, he signalled the driver and the vehicle moved into traffic, Asami found himself loathe to let go of the blond still in his arms to get dressed.


	6. It's Bound to take your Life

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Let's find out what happens to people who mess with Asami and his wolf's things... Here's a hint: it's ain't pretty.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a couple of quick notes: 
> 
> This chapter was a joint effort by iluvmyterrier and myself, Lainie. She, being sugar and spice and everything nice, did the hospital scene. I, on the other hand, did the squishy parts. O.o
> 
> Also, it's been brought to our attention that there are some apparent inconsistencies with iluvmyterrier's and my spelling and grammar. No, there isn't. She's American, and I'm Canadian. Shame on you for not being more multicultural! ;o)

Asami Ryuichi strode into his warehouse, surrounded by his men and members of his pack. On a raised platform of shipping pallets sat four men, bound and gagged, dumped on their asses. The three scruffy ones, who should never have been permitted near his club, were cohorts of the one that had attacked his wolf’s intended mate, which to his mind translated into “his property”. The fourth was the “security” man who worked with Suduo Shuu, not for him. Those humans that weren’t working for him or with him, were considered to be working against him and his pack, and that he would not abide.

He waited with his entourage near the back wall, waiting for important reports from his top betas, absently nodding to passersby who were giving him his due as pack leader. The warehouse itself was dark by human standards, lots of shadows and semi-lit corners, neatly stacked shipping crates and boxed goods on the floor, waiting to be shipped or stored on the giant framework of steel shelving protruding from the walls into the the warehouse proper. The only well lit areas were the ones at all four exits to the big space, and the lights directly over the prisoners.

He had put out a notice to all betas and subordinate couples with young that he’d permitted in his territory that he would provide the pre-adults old enough to either follow or hunt with the pack a chance to practice their new skills. When Suoh messaged him from Sion that Sudou Shuu was sequestered in his office with one guard inside keeping an eye on him, and a second stationed outside his door, he sneered, thinking he’d have to give a bonus to the pair: maybe a weekend at an onsen, to get that slimy feeling off the one inside, subject to Sudou's desperate attempts to bribe or seduce him into letting the fake blond go, as well as the one outside, having to listen to the whole thing as it went on. His wolf hoped both guards had strong stomachs. They should probably get an unlimited bar tab too. Some things one just didn’t need to remember.

Once he got the message he was waiting for, saying his wolf’s “mate” had revived some time after all three young men were examined and assigned one of his private hospital suites to stay together in. His mood definitely turned darker when the guard noted that “his” boy was emotionally distressed and had broke down in tears despite his friends’ attempts to comfort him. That was the final nail in the coffin.

Signalling his men to start towards the captives, he had a dark, foreboding aura about him that matched his thoughts. That the scrappy kid who had defied him, defended himself and gotten away should be brought down so low… an angry snarl escaped him, making lower ranking members whimper and move away from him, fast. He wasn’t a cruel Alpha, given to taking his temper out on lower pack mates, but still…

Once he was at the pallet stage, his guards spread out, surrounding the platform while their leader, at eye level with the prisoners, started to speak. “There are specific guidelines for keeping people like you out of my clubs, and yet there you all were, allied with my poor excuse of a manager Sudou, causing problems, interfering with my loyal employees doing their jobs, providing beatings of my patrons for pay, and assaulting and molesting young people wanting to enjoy themselves. Tell me: those three males you attacked tonight, what were you planning to do with them when you were finished having your… fun?” Even if the three toughs weren’t gagged, it's doubtful any of them would have had anything worthwhile to say.

Speaking to the ranking guard beside him, Asami ordered “Bring in the first bunch.” Bowing, the young man talked into his ear phone, and the large loading doors opened, letting in a crowd of middle school-aged kids to mill about while their parents and older siblings kept an eye on them. They all knew each other, having been raised together since they were all within a year or so of being the same age and were excited to be part of an impromptu pack meeting in the middle of the night. They were all wearing their school’s gym uniform, as being this age, unexpected loss of shifting control as well as random boners and hairy pimple outbreaks were still the norm. It was the older teens, with more self control, who had the choice of going to a human high school if they wanted to. When they saw their leader, they all quieted nervously, giving their greetings in an awed, subdued way.

Being directed to form a ring behind the guards, they all waited to see what would happen. Speaking to his guard again for a moment, he then addressed the junior members of his pack, watching them as they paid rapt attention to his words. “You are all old enough to have been present while your parents and siblings went on a hunt, and you’ve seen how successful kills are made. Tonight, I’ve decided you should have your chance at a hunt with your peers to work on your skills. These three will be set free in here together, and…” he added, turning to look at the wary thugs as he continued “if any of them can make it through an exit door, I’ll release them. If any team loses their prey, they’re clean up detail for the others. Form up your packs.” The excited kids burst into squeals and loud calls as they formed up their teams with friends and relatives, all roughly equal in numbers. The more confident ones started undressing, leaving their clothes with their guardians while the shyer ones waited to shift to get out of their clothes.

Asami nodded to his guard, who gave his order, and three males jumped up on the platform, used their knives to cut through the binds of the prisoners, none being too careful with the bait as the blades sliced into skin as well. The men looked on, dazed as the kids started shifting into their wolf forms, some pups wriggling out of their shorts, t-shirts and socks. Everyone in the warehouse tensed, waiting for the chase to begin. Being manhandled to three separate areas of the platform, somewhat equal distance between the teams, the guards waited with their struggling burdens for the signal to release. “Ready…” Asami called out, getting the excited teens fired up as the three humans were ejected from their perch of relative safety and landed hard on the cement floor, just to see all those feral, eager eyes staring at them, mouths open, sharp teeth visible and tongues hanging out. Scrambling to their feet, they fled in different directions. “Begin!” cracked out in the strained atmosphere, answered by eager barks and a few encouraging yells from the onlookers.

The first kill was made about half way to one of the exits, on the open floor where the prey had flat out panicked and tried to outrun the pack. He was brought down amongst screams of pain and terror, thrashing around for a bit before he was quiet and the victorious pack howled their success. Their family members, recognizing their voices, howled back and moved towards the platform, relaxed and congratulating each other, leaving a respectful distance around Asami and his men.

The second and third packs signalled they’d found their prey with excited growls, but it sounded like one man was cornered and fighting back desperately, shouting and cursing loudly, the sound of metal on cement carrying. At Asami’s word, an adult scout, who was on stand by, reported that the prey had been boxed in several rows away from an exit door and was swinging a pry bar, trying to keep the subadult pups at bay. Several pups had climbed over the stored goods on a shelf through to the next aisle over and were coming around that way. When they’d crept through the bottom shelf and attacked their human from the side, knocking the man over, everyone heard the vicious ripping and tearing of meat as the screams were quickly choked off. Those pups returned, bloodied and tired, proud of having to work for their kill.

The final team was quiet, and some of their adults got restless, whining with the desire to make sure their young ones were alright. Another monitor was sent out, and both reported back shortly that the human had tried to avoid his pack by climbing the shelving crosspieces and jumping from shelves to piled boxes across to another row’s shelving, hoping to get past the young wolves by staying above their heads. The scent of his fresh blood gave him away, and a couple of the bigger males had shifted back to humans and had started climbing after him, not giving him a chance to rest, always having to keep moving to stay ahead of his hunters. One male finally brought the prey down by racing towards him as the man tried to climb up another level. Running towards him as fast as he could, he leapt at the prey as he was on the outside of the crossbar, shifting to his wolf in midair and hitting the man square in his chest. Both fell three level to the floor below, the prey was unconscious while the young wolf had the air knocked out of him and needed to recover a little. All of his teammates waited for him, leaving him the kill. He returned to the stage, leading his pack, battered, bruised and victorious.

Asami made note of him, deciding to have Kirishima keep tabs on him. Chances were he’d want leave the pack early and head out on his own, hoping to start his own pack, but if he could be persuaded to stay, he'd probably make an excellent protégé for Suoh or Kirishima one day.

Once everyone had assembled, shifted back to human and got dressed, Asami spoke to them. Announcing that the first team made the fastest kill and got to go out for a catered picnic to a local festival together, unencumbered by family. The second team had to work together to make their kill, so they earned a movie night with desserts and gift bags afterwards. The final team had to take calculated risks to literally bring their prey down, so they earned a catered club party. Once all the cheers were finished, the youths were sent home with the news that they would not be going to their school in the morning, giving them time to rest up and think about what they had learned tonight.

As the rambunctious crowd departed, a younger group was brought in. They were older elementary school aged, but still most comfortable away from home in their wolf pup forms, shifting at will still not being a practiced skill they were good at. Asami paid the noisy, playful group no mind as he approached the security man who had seen what had befallen to his counterparts on the platform. Sweating, he wanted to know what Asami required, almost pleading to confess to anything to avoid the same fate. Asami gave him a cold look, advising him that he already knew what he and Suduo had done in his club, so what he was asking was irrelevant. At best, he had thought of torturing him in front of his boss to see if Sudou would be moved to confess any further sins to save his own skin, but since he was security and had let those four bastards into his club, which allowed this incident happen, on his premises, to his boy and friends, he thought a special example should be made as a warning to other employees present.

Mounting the rolling steps that been moved into position beside the platform, he walked over to the ex-employee as he drew out his kaiken tantō knife from its belt sheath. Bending down, he cut off the club’s jacket, tie and shirt, then sliced through the shaking man’s belt and pants, ending with cutting through the shoe laces to removed the man’s footwear. Then quickly, and without warning, he hamstrung the prey’s left ankle to a sharp yelp of pain, and by twisting the man’s arm up and behind him, he dislocated the man’s shoulder, keeping the pain-filled noises coming, gaining the pups’ attention.

A few were sitting up, looking rather interested in what was going on above them. Grinning at the youngsters milling around below, his wolf idly wondered what their pups would look like, almost making Asami swallow his tongue at the (for them) highly irregular thought. His wolf chuckled at him, deep in his mind, before turning his thoughts to the boy in the clinic.

Asami blinked and mentally shook his head, before cutting thin slices across the torso of the man he held upright by the neck. Then dangling the whimpering man in front and above the pups, he whistled and grinned as he shook the flopping man like a rag toy and dropped him on the floor, watching the yapping puppies come to attention, tails straight out, ears back, baring their sharp little teeth in frightening, adorable snarls…

 

*****

 

Takato and Kou kept vigil by Aki's hospital bedside in a large, sunny private room with windows overlooking the busy streets of Tokyo and a breathtaking view of Tokyo Bay. It was in a clinic owned by the business man who had brought their unconscious friend in the night before from the club. The doctor had told them that Akihito was lucky and his injuries could have been much worse, but he would be alright and he just needed some bed rest for now. He had a mild concussion and as a precaution he was to be kept for observation over the next 24 hours.

His scaphoid wrist bone was fractured, which meant he’d be in a partial cast for about 6 weeks, and he had severe bruising over part of his face and most of his body. They were warned that when he did wake, since he had been on pain medication due to the trauma he endured mixed with the alcohol he had drank earlier, that he probably wouldn't make much sense talking and would likely act confused, but for them not to worry as with similar cases of head trauma, it was normal behavior.

While they were waiting for their friend to wake up, Takato was listening to the news station on the television while Kou was reading the latest issue of his favorite manga novel. Hearing soft mumbling coming from Aki, they stopped what they were doing and pulled their chairs closer to his bed, not saying anything for fear of startling him awake, instead waiting to give him time to acclimate to his new surroundings.

Aki awoke to find his friends at his bedside; blinking to be sure he wasn't dreaming, he asked them: "Where am I?"

"You’re in the hospital." They both answered at the same time. With a blanket pulled up to his chin, the ragtag blond looked like a small, worn out boy, dwarfed in the large but comfortable looking bed. There was multicolored bruising covering one side of his face and his hazel eyes reflected anxiety.

"What happened?"

Kou looked at Takato and it was mutually understood that Takato would do the explaining since he was the oldest and the most calming one of the three friends. "Do you remember anything?"

Shutting his eyes for a few minutes, they saw him begin to violently shudder as he nodded his head. They wanted to reach out and comfort him but were afraid to touch him without permission in case it caused him more harm than good. He was in a very fragile state of mind and they had to tread carefully with him, as one would with an injured animal.

"I’m sorry."

"Aki, you have nothing to be sorry for. You did nothing wrong, so don't even think that way."

"I put you guys in danger just because I was thinking only of myself. You both could have been killed and it would have been all my fault."

"Stop it, Aki.” Takato spoke in a firm tone, then in a more gentle voice added, "We didn't get hurt, so stop blaming yourself for something that you didn't cause and couldn't have prevented."

Opening his eyes again, Aki looked at them and whispered "I feel so dirty”, and then tears began blurring his vision as he tried blinking his eyes to stop them. When that didn't work, he used his good arm and fiercely rubbed his hand over his eyes trying stop himself, but the floodgates were open and like a failing dam, the tears rushed down his cheeks, sopping the blankets around him.

Kou grabbed the box of tissues on the table next to the bed and handed it over to Aki. "Thank you” Aki sobbed, taking the box from his friend and pulling out a wad of tissues in his hand, dabbing angrily at his wet eyes.

Watching their friend be in this much pain angered the two of them all over again and they wished they could get their hands on the guy who had dared hurt him and make him suffer for what he did. He cried for what seemed to him like hours but it was only a few minutes, then his eyes began to get heavy and he drifted off into a deep sleep again.

 

***WARNING: rape dream sequence, so skip over should this part be a trigger for you. Just remember, it never actually happened, and is only a horrible nightmare caused by recent events at the club***

 

"No, no, please! Don’t, stop… it hurts!... Take it out!... you’re too big..... you're killing me!”

"Stop your whining, you pathetic little bitch, and admit you asked for this, wanted it to happen. What did you think, that by flaunting and wriggling your little ass in those tight pants all over that dance floor like the hot, dirty slut you are that someone wouldn't take you up on your invitation to get fucked senseless? Well, the night has only just begun. Hell, the real fun hasn't even started yet, so don't be too disappointed if it’s over fast. After I’m finished here with popping your virgin cherry ass, we’re going to head over to my place to have a real party with a group of my beer buddies, and that pair of your own little friends thrown into the mix as an added dessert. Why, I wouldn't be surprised if they’ve already started on them without waiting for us, so we’d better finish this now and head over too so we can get in on the fun."

"Kou and Takato.... No, leave them alone..... You don't need them.... I’ll do whatever you ask... do whatever you want me to... just don't hurt them.... please.... don't..... I won't struggle anymore... please.... please... I beg you... please... just don't hurt them.... let them go... you don't need to do this…” Aki couldn't bear the thought of his two best friends being violated in the same way he was. They didn't deserve it, but he did, and it was all his fault they were in mortal danger. He would never be able to forgive himself should they fell  prey to the same fate as him.

"Nope, hate to disappoint you, but that just ain't gonna happen, and you don’t have a say in it. Now shut the hell up and let's finish this so we can get out of here and you can start learning the real meaning of begging for it."

Aki began screaming until blackness overtook him.

 

~~ end of dream rape sequence; and now, a short wolf dream ~~

 

He was running through a large green meadow by a beautiful lake, naked and barefoot, with the soft grass underfoot still wet with early dew and the soft breeze lifting his hair in all directions. He didn't know where he was, he just knew that he was safe and content, more happy than he’d ever been before in his life. Stopping at the water's edge, he sighed contentedly and closed his eyes, breathing in the cool early morning air. Catching a pleasant and somewhat familiar scent of sandalwood and tobacco, he turned around and saw a magnificent black wolf with long soft fur and golden amber eyes standing at the edge of the meadow, watching him from beneath the shadows of the forest.

Smiling, Aki let the wild side of his nature take over and felt himself shifting into a beautiful white wolf with a glimpse of silver undercoat revealed wherever his fur parted. Trotting over to the bigger wolf, he greeted him with an affectionate nuzzle and lick to his cheek and nose. With a huff, the black wolf bent his head and started licking and grooming the white one's fur until the smaller wolf dropped to the ground on his back as if to show submission by baring his vulnerable neck and belly to the Alpha male. The great wolf cocked his head for a moment, looking questioningly at Akihito before he continued sniffing, licking and nuzzling the smaller one beneath him. Suddenly, as if he hit a ticklish spot, the silvered wolf began wriggling on his back, then roiled around, enjoyed a good back scratch, squirming his way through the long grasses. The dark wolf sat back, tongue hanging out in laughter as he watched the smaller wolf. After Akihito’s ticklish fit, he calmed down, lay back on his side, back legs lolling open, at total ease.

As the grooming continued, he found himself relaxing to the point that he almost fell asleep until the bigger one started licking his anus and genitals with gentle swipes of his long wet tongue. That startled Aki with a jolt, and rolling away, he decided that he wanted to play instead.

Gently using his paws to push away his Alpha's muzzle from it's quest, he rolled over again and standing up, leaned forward in a low bow with his belly almost touching the grass as his fore limbs and paws stretched out straight ahead of his body, his rump raised up invitingly high in the air, and thick fluffy tail stood up with only the silvery tip curled over his head. Then he reversed his position, and his tail lowered while he continued stretching his hind legs and back, then yawned. As the black wolf was watching with an entranced look on his face, Aki took off running across the meadow with a yip, turning his head back to look at the Alpha and stuck his tongue out at him. Growling, the Alpha went in hot pursuit of the white wolf and they began a game of racing and chasing each other back and forth around the meadow and through the shallow banks of the lake. Yipping and growling and panting wolf laughter could be heard by all animals in the surrounding area as a warning that they should avoid coming near while the wolves played.

Deciding that playtime was over and it was time to head to their den, the Alpha grabbed the white wolf by the tail in his mouth and clamped down firmly, stopping the chase in mid-stride.

 

~~ end of wolf dream sequence ~~

 

"Ow!!!! What the hell!!!!" Aki yelped, his one good hand reaching down to massage his tailbone above his rump, at the same time waking up his friends who had fallen asleep in their chairs.

"Whoa, what happened?!”

"Who’s there!?" Kou and Takato had both dozed off when he yelled and they both jumped up, looking around the room with sleep dazed eyes. Kou grabbed the large pitcher of ice water a nurse had left on the table, ready to use it as a weapon to defend his friend while Takato had his hands raised and went into a boxing stance. 

"Aki-chan, you’re awake!" Kou screeched.

"Are you feeling any better? Did you rest at all?" Takato asked in a more dignified (and quiet) manner.

Grinning sheepishly at them, Aki nodded his head as his friends sat back down in their chairs so they could talk.

"Would you like a glass of water?" Kou asked.

"Yeah, that would be great, thanks." Takato reached over and adjusted the pillow behind Aki's head so he would at least be more comfortable. Sipping on the water, Aki glanced at them from under his eyelashes. They both looked exhausted, dark shadows beneath the dark circles cast by the fluorescent lights under their eyes. He still felt like this whole mess was all his fault, but he was happy and relieved they escaped unscathed.

"Did you have a nightmare?" Takato asked, concerned.

"Yeah, it was really bad, but then something strange happened and I had another very weird dream."

"Yeah, how so?"

"I dreamt I was a white wolf in a meadow and I wasn't alone. There was another wolf there, a large black one with golden eyes."

"Wow, cool." Kou chirped in. Takato gave him a look and he shut up, letting Aki talk.

"It was strange, I felt at peace there. I somehow knew this wolf and that he wouldn't hurt me and would keep me safe."

Takato nodded his head, then said quietly "I think I understand why you had that dream." Aki looked at him with an eyebrow raised in question. "That guy who saved you in the alley and brought you here, the nightclub owner. It was odd, but we understood that he wouldn't let anyone else touch you, and carried you all the way to his waiting limo. He held you in his arms the entire trip here then brought you in himself. That’s when we learned it's his privately owned clinic."

Kou joined in. "Yeah, you should’ve seen him. He looked like his hair was all wild, and he carried you in his arms without a problem; everyone cleared out of his way like they thought he’d snarl at them if they got too close."

Takato added "We got a ride with two of his men in another car that followed you here. They had us checked out by the doctors in the emergency room to make sure we were ok too."

With big, frightened eyes, Kou said, "Man, you should have seen them. These guys were huge and scary as well, but not as much as the one who carried you around like a kid with his new favourite toy."

Wide eyed, Akihito whispered "Asami Ryuichi…?"

"Yup, that's the guy who saved you, and his men saved our asses from getting beat to a bloody pulp too."

"What happened to the fuck up who attacked me?"

"Um, that's the funny thing: this owner, ah, Asami?, is trying to keep the incident quiet, and the police said with the security footage and statements from the various staff members involved, the case is closed, and there won't even need to be a public trial. The Detective handling the case, Kuroda’s his name, told us we won’t have to give statements, and we’ve nothing to worry about, those guys won’t be bothering us again after sentencing."

The room became rather silent except for their breathing as the three looked at each other. They were startled by the sound of heavy footsteps approaching down the corridor, stopping outside, then watched as the handle turned and the door opened.


	7. I Hope You got Your Things Together

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Asami and Akihito meet again, the mess at Club Dracaena gets taken care of, and where Sudou's concerned, Asami kills two birds with one stone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whew! Got this done just in time for May 5th. Happy Birthday, Aki-chan! ;o)

Akihito balled the blankets up in his fists and appeared to sink lower in the bed as if trying to make himself disappear beneath the sheets. Kou stayed seated and squeezed one of Aki's hands while Takato stood up protectively, moving himself between the door and Aki's hospital bed.

Asami Ryuichi stepped into the room, followed closely by his Chief of Security Suoh Kazumi and another guard who closed the door behind them. Smiling politely, Takato relaxed without moving.

"Asami-san, thank you for stopping by; but Akihito is still tired right now, so it's really not a good time for you to see him."

"Move aside before I move you”, the hulking blond guard growled in a deep, gravelly voice.

Takato blinked up at him, and stood fast, crossing his arms over his chest, clearly not impressed with being addressed in such a manner. "Just who the hell do you think you are, threatening me that way? Aki's hurt and exhausted and needs to rest right now, which he won't get with all of you in here with him. I am not going to allow him to get even more tired out, so get over it."

Suoh's eye twitched and he was just about to reach out and take hold of the impudent whelp mouthing off at him when he felt a calming hand on his shoulder. "It's fine, Souh. Why don't you two step out in the hallway and wait for me. I won't be long."

"Hai, Asami-sama"

Turning to Takato and Kou, he regarded the pair of young men standing by his boy. "And you’re right, Takaba-kun doesn’t need a crowd in here, wearing him out. So, waiting outside for a few minutes goes for you two as well." Asami narrowed his eyes at the two boys and his tone of command brooked no arguments. The taller fair-haired male turned his head to look over at Akihito, because sure as hell he wasn't going to leave him all alone with this intimidating man if the blond didn’t want that, no matter if he’d probably saved their lives earlier.

"It's alright, Takato, I’ll be fine. Why don't you and Kou go get something to eat in the cafeteria; you both most be starving."

Kou squeezed Aki's hand again. "Are you sure?"

"Yeah, I’ll be fine. He saved me, right? I doubt he’d want to do anything to me now, so no worries. ‘Kay?"

With some reluctance, Kou let go of Aki's hand and stood up, walking over to join Takato. As they moved to pass by Asami, Takato paused and quietly warned the older man: "If you hurt or upset him, I will hunt you down and make you pay”, before they both left the room.

_"He's a brave one for saying those words to you. I like these young men, they seem loyal and I feel they can be trusted. They are both very protective of our mate, Asami. It would benefit us if they can be persuaded to join our pack."_

_"Indeed, they are. But we don't need outsiders joining our family now; it will only lead to more trouble for us, which we don't need with a possible conflict looming on the horizon."_

_"But still, they would make excellent additions, especially that Takato. He would become a very valuable asset as a Beta, and Kou would make a useful Omega helper and confidant to our little mate. Akihito would become very lonely without them as part of his new life, and it would break his heart for you to keep them apart once our bonding is complete."_

_"We will discuss this matter at another time. Right now, I need to speak with the boy in private, if you don't mind."_

_"I will give you some privacy as I need to rest a bit before my run tonight. Just be sure you don't do anything stupid to frighten my little mate. Do you understand me, Asami?"_ his wolf asked pointedly, mentally starting to bristle.

 _"Oh, don't worry, you have made yourself perfectly clear on that account"_ Asami hummed, amused by his wolf’s sudden exclusive possessiveness.

_"Good. Just remember who he truly belongs to, and don't get any funny ideas in that thick skull of yours. Don’t think that I wouldn’t make your life a living hell when you know I can do it."_

Asami closed his eyes for just a moment while his wolf went elsewhere, and when he opened them to find large hazel orbs peeking out at him from above the covers of the bed.

"I'm not going to bite you, so there’s no need to hide from me." ‘At least, not yet’, he amended, feeling a smirk wanting to break loose. ‘My, but he does look very small and delectable, not at all like that tasty spitfire that escaped me.’ That thought seemed to provoke his Alpha instincts to want to protect the blond. ‘So many facets… promises to the mutt be damned, that boy will be mine.’

"Thank you. Thank you for saving me last night from that rapist bastard. If you hadn't shown up in time, I truly believe he would have killed me after he’d used me, let alone what he and his partners would have done to my friends. I know you didn't have to do it, and probably just wished I’d disappear after causing trouble at the pier the other night, but I am truly grateful for all your kindness in helping me and my friends."

"What happened to you and your friends at Club Dracaena was inexcusable and that scum who dared to touch you got exactly what he deserved. It was my club and my responsibility. I will be dealing personally with the manager for allowing filth like that to even enter the premises. It’s my understanding from the bartender he witnessed an altercation between your group and another man earlier, that that troublemaker was there at the club regularly and was known to cause problems with other patrons."

"The bartender was a very nice guy and helpful; he kept a eye on us and even came to help me and Kou when that douche was hassling us earlier at the bar."

"Yes, he also came to the aid of your friends on the dance floor when you were separated from them. I promise you, he will be getting a well-deserved promotion and a much higher salary to go with it for his loyalty and protecting his clients."

"I’m glad. He’s a good man and has a family he needs to provide for.” Nodding, Asami  
studied the blond for a moment before he spoke.

"Now, about the reason for my visit and why I need to speak with you..."

"If it's about repaying for what you did for me, I don't have the kind of money you’d probably expect, but I would be willing to work off the debt I owe you by helping out at your clubs in between my photography jobs and working at the newspaper."

Fighting back the dark grin that threatened at the mere thought of the boy tottering around one of the clubs in heels, balancing a full tray while in a snug server’s dress, the man shook his head. “No, that's not why I’m here. I don't need your money, nor would I accept any type of recompense. Again, it was my club and my responsibility to ensure all of you were safe while you were enjoying my establishment. I can tell you, such a heinous act will never happen again at any of my clubs."

Aki looked up at him with a baffled expression on his face as he saw no other reason for why the man would be there, other than the debt he owed him for saving his life. “Then, why are you here to see me?"

“ Because, Takaba-kun, you are still in mortal danger."                                                                                   

*******

Sion Corporation   
  


Sudou Shuu was currently sitting in Asami's office, handcuffed to a chair, waiting for his boss and the love of his life, Asami Ryuichi, to come and release him. It was all a stupid misunderstanding and he would make things right with Asami once and for all. His chin was hurting where that brute of a guard had punched him and knocked him out, and he was sure there was bruising already forming from the tenderness he was experiencing from it. ‘I have to make him understand that everything I did was only for him, then he’ll know how much I adore him and what lengths I will go to in order to protect his best interests. Once I explain everything to him, he’ll take me in his arms and make passionate love to me while whispering his true feelings for me in my ear, over and over again…’

"Get that smug look off your face. If you knew how much trouble you were in right now, you’d be shitting and pissing yourself instead of looking like a cat that just ate the canary and is waiting for the cream."

Startled out of his sexy daydreams of Asami and him, Sudou turned his head and gave the guard who dared to punch him in his face a dark sneer. “Once Asami learns the truth and lets me go, I’ll demand you’re punished for manhandling me this way."

“Frightening. But what's really scaring me is how delusional you are, Sudou."

The ass dared to laugh at him. Well, he would be sorry before the night was over, and be crying and begging for his life in front of him on his knees by the time his Asami was done with him. Not taking his eyes off the disgraced club manager, the guard reached into his suit jacket to retrieve his phone and glanced at it.

“It won’t be long now, I just got a message that the boss is on his way up and will be here any moment to deal with you."

The office door opened as he spoke and in walked the man of Sudou Shuu's darkest fantasies, looking as sinful as an amaretto chocolate truffle covered in dark cocoa. Just thinking of the bitter powder on his tongue as he took in the god-like man’s countenance made him almost weak with the desire for something sweet.

******

"You're WHAT?" Kou cried out in shock.

"No, there’s no way in hell I’m letting this happen”, Takato stated flatly, a determined look on his face. They had just gotten back from the cafeteria and learned the true motive behind Asami Ryuichi's visit to see their friend. Aki was trying not to cry when he broke the bad news to them, but was having a difficult time with it. Especially when Takato and Kou were reacting like this; even though he couldn't blame his friends, feeling exactly the same way. “We are not going to let him take you away from us. No way in hell!"

"Yeah, who does this guy think he is, trying to take you from us and put you into hiding." Kou huffed, up in arms.

"I have no choice in the matter, guys. If I’d never gone down to the pier and photographed what I saw, then my life wouldn't be in danger."

"What makes you think you can trust him, or that he's even telling the truth?"

"I don't know whether I can, but he’s the one who warned me after saving us, so I see no way out."

"Wherever he’s taking you, I’m going with you, and that's final. You are my little bro and I will not let you do this alone."

Aki sniffed even harder at Takato's word and then lost total control when Kou added “Yeah, me too!"

"I love you guys so much! But, what about your jobs?”

"This sounds like a family emergency to me, so I’ll tell my boss I need to take a leave. We love you too Aki, and we’ll be by your side ‘til this is all over, no matter how it ends."

Kou grinned and shrugged. “And if we can’t get leave, well, fuck ‘em if they can't take a joke, we’ll quit. If I can’t pay the rent, then we’ll both move in with Takato.” This announcement made the heroic Takato make a less than heroic squawk, which lightened the mood in the room immeasurably.

*****

Asami barely glanced at what was disrupting the understated elegance of his office before nodding for Suoh to take the pair of guards outside the room and give them their deserved rewards for doing their distasteful duty. After they were dismissed, the young guard that accompanied Suoh and their boss to the medical clinic was told wait by the elevator doors before Suoh returned to the office carrying a metal case and closing the door. Setting it down by Asami’s desk, he then picked up the laptop on the desk itself and logged in before moving it to the coffee table by Suduo. Done with his preparations, he took up his habitual spot covering his Alpha’s back, and stood at ease. Asami, in the mean time, had poured himself a drink from his bar, and after unbuttoning his suit jacket, had produced his pack of cigarettes and a cherrywood and gold lighter, proceeding to light up before checking on Suoh’s progress. Satisfied with the preparations, he moved in front of his desk and smoked as he waited for his security chief to finish and take his place.

Finally addressing his former manager, he gave him a cold look and said: “Suoh and I have a bet going about you, Sudou Shuu. He’s of the opinion that anyone who would take the opportunity that I gave you and screw it up by betraying me has to be stupid. I, perhaps too optimistically, prefer to believe that you were trying to be ballsy. Settle our dispute, Shuu. Stupid, or ballsy?” After listening to the convoluted reasoning about how taking from his boss’ delivery of drugs, cutting them with ingredients that would increase the amount available without detracting from their potency and passing them on to his in-house security lead to be dealt out on the floor by his friend within the club would increase Asami’s profits without leading any authorities coming back to Sion. From the look on Shuu’s face, he was expecting a hearty congratulations for his ingenuity and possibly a blowjob from the boss himself for a job well done. Smoking in deep thought for several moments, Asami turned his head to look at his friend and they locked eyes, seeming to share the same thought. Asami sighed in disappointment, fished out a 1000¥ note from his wallet and passed it over his shoulder to Suoh. Shaking his head, he muttered “Stupid, then.”

Without wasting time explaining to the deluded idiot where all his plans had gone wrong, he simply wrapped that little disaster up by telling him how hard it was to run an honest business with licenses, inspections and regulations without endangering it by selling drugs to undercover vice cops. The fact that the security lead had allowed his dealer friend and other undesirables into his club, and that they had, in turn, tried to harm a group of customers tonight, including someone he considered of interest to himself, left Sudou in a very serious position. Finally seeming to understand that he wouldn’t be getting a “raise” from his boss tonight, the disgraced employee then did his damnedest to shift as much blame onto his partners in crime as he could. Without a word, Suoh walked back to the desk, opened the case and removed something from it, and came back to Asami’s side, handing it over with a slight bow. Asami carried it with him to the coffee table to stub out his smoke, and nonchalantly said that while he could appreciate how hard it was to get good help these days, Sudou’s security man was busy elsewhere, so this was the only hand he could lend his manager. Saying that, Asami negligently tossed what he was carrying to Sudou. It hit the top of his thigh and landed square on his crotch. Shuu stared at it uncomprehendingly for a moment before he started to shriek and tried to struggle away. There in his lap, seemingly giving him a grope from beyond the grave, was a disembodied hand, several fingers gnawed to stubs, tears and gashes all over, shredded ends of skin and tendon where it had been pulled away from the wrist. Both Suoh and Asami let the man carry on for a few more minutes before the big guard lost his patience, walked over to the prisoner and backhanded him hard enough that both Shuu and the chair sailed backwards several feet before crashing down on their backs.

As Sudou panted and rolled his terrified eyes around, looking to see where the hand was, Suoh proceeded over to the laptop, opened a file and clicked “play”, then put the laptop on the floor by Sudou’s head, where he could see what was happening. It was a live stream of a warehouse, where a group of canines were milling around, growling at a ring of guards who were taking turns punching, stabbing and cutting a man suspended from the rafters. Whenever there was a slight break in the men’s actions, one of the beasts would dart into the ring and grab onto the dangling man, tearing and rending away at him before the guards shouts would send it back to the outside. From the amount of blood pooled underneath, and the slow way it trickled from the wounds, if the target of the punishment wasn’t already dead, he would be shortly. The reason he was there was because he was the start of Takaba and friends troubles, and fearing his actions may have caused a multiple assault and rape incident at the club, he’d called, wanting to speak to his friend the manager about getting their stories straight about the “incident” earlier on in the evening. In fact, acting manager Kirishima Kei was more than happy to set up a meeting with the man for his side of the story…

Finally satisfied that Sudou was sufficiently cowed into submission and properly fearing for his life, Asami had Suoh arrange an escort of guards for the broken man. He’d be taken somewhere and made presentable for Asami’s sometimes rival as a gift. Arbatov had responded to his email earlier, agreeing to join forces between the Sion pack and his own, and had already sent a gift cementing the deal: a crate of his very best private stock vodka. Sudou Shuu would be to the Russian’s taste, pretty enough as a decoration, mentally weak enough to be twisted as he liked, and sturdy enough for the man’s rough play. If Mikhail was dumb enough to let Shuu get his hands on more than the remote control for the bedroom tv, that wasn’t his problem. He was sure Arbatov would have no scruples about locking his pet naked out on the balcony some cold Moscow winter night to get rid of him if he had to. With that mess taken care of, Asami lit another cigarette and idly watched Suoh fetch the hand from where it had got to as he focused his thoughts on his blond, and what his next steps with him would be.


	8. I See Earthquakes and Lightnin'

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I want to send a special-shout out to Lainie, "Thank you again for making this story possible by helping me out as a co-author and beta because without your help I know this story would not be progressing as well as it is. As always, thanks for writing the most difficult scenes of story too because I would have literally messed them up without your valuable assistance. I see you as my own personal Kirishima Kei and would be lost without you." 
> 
> Most importantly of all, we both thank everyone for their continued support of "Blood Moon" by reading and following it. As always, a special thank you to those of you who leave kudos and comments, as well as bookmark and subscribe to our story. We hope you continue to enjoy it as much as we do writing it.

 

Sion Corporation

 

Asami was in his office sitting behind his desk, looking over the details of the documents laid out in front of him, finalizing his agreement with Mikhail Arbatov and the Russian's pack. Kirishima, who had expertly prepared it for him was standing patiently by his side, waiting for him to finish so that it could be signed and witnessed before copies were made and the original sent back. Sudou had already been shipped by special delivery to the Russian mob leader and Asami was expecting to receive a Skype call from Moscow very soon verifying receipt of his gift. It was only just a formality since they had already agreed to and acknowledged their new partnership beforehand, but it was still essential that it be officially documented for their packs. With his Dunhill resting between his lips, Asami casually held his hand out, palm up, and Kei placed his boss's favourite Mont Blanc pen in it that he had ready for his signature. Signing the paperwork, Asami asked: "Is the limo all prepared and waiting?"

"Hai, Asami-sama. And as an added precaution, Suoh has a contingent guard ready along with a route car, sweepers and a lead car."

“Really”, Asami commented, poker faced. His administrative assistant and number two man at Sion tried to read him, and failed.

“We also have a contingency plan in case we find security has been blown, and can have the limo and a backup BMW at one entrance, two armored SUVs at another entrance, and an SUV, a BMW and a pair of motorcycles at the third, all leaving at staggered times, with spotters on rooftops along all three routes.”

“I see.” Asami waited a moment, took a puff of his cigarette letting his friend stew a little longer, then drawled “Why not use the helicopter as well? Unless it's in the shop…”

“The helicopter’s fine, Asami-sama. I thought that would be overkill for just yourself and three boys…”

Asami grinned. "Excellent." Done with his bit of teasing, he handed the signed documents back to his faithful and long suffering secretary for his witness signature. Asami leaned back in his chair while continuing to smoke and looked out the window, idly watching traffic flow on the busy streets of Tokyo while he waited.

"I will only be a moment, sir." Nodding his head in acknowledgement, he turned and watched as Kei walked across the room and out the door, then let his mind wander to more interesting topics.

_'Thinking about our little mate?'_

_'What do you think?'_ he asked, embers smouldering in his golden eyes.

_'I cannot wait to see his wolf form. I can already tell he will be beautiful, even more so than he is as a human. You will be claiming him soon?'_

_'Oh, indeed, I will be.'_

_'Good. I’m getting impatient, waiting for you to make up your damned mind up when to do it. If you don't hurry your hairless ass up and take care of this like the Alpha you are purported to be, I will just have to deal with it myself.'_

_'I don't think so, wolf. Back off. The one to have the first taste will be me. Remember who you are talking to, you mangy hound.'_

_'Tsk tsk, temper temper, Asami. Remember your blood pressure, old man…'_

Their conversation cut off as Kei re-entered the room. "Everything on this end has been taken care of, and I just received the call from Moscow confirming that your gift has been received. Arbatov is quite pleased with him and is waiting to thank you." With an amused smirk, Asami nodded for Kei to connect the call on his desktop computer. Leaning back comfortably in his chair, he waited until the screen came to life and logged on.

Moments later, his European counterpart appeared on the screen. He was sitting in an elegant two-toned grey round “cuddle” chair, one leg crossed over his knee, brandy snifter cradled in one hand. The other hand held a pair of thin plaited leashes in it. The leashes were attached to a pair of metal collars around the pale neck of a trembling, distressed Sudou Shuu. One was a simple choke chain laying at the base of his neck, the other was a prong collar, lax but snug under his lower jaw and along the back of his ears. Asami nodded as he greeted his caller. “Mikhail”.

“Asami. How are things in the heart of the Floating Kingdom?” The yakuza smiled slightly at the ancient term for Japan.

“Well in hand. And how is business in your territory within All the Russias?”

The younger man grinned at the title used by the old czars. “Fine. Seriously, next time you come to Russia, we should go out drinking and play a trivia game at a bar. I’m sure we’d kick ass.”

Refusing to acknowledge that idea, the yakuza coolly looked over Sudou. From what could be seen from the screen, the male was keeping his eyes down. He was shirtless, but since he was on his knees, it was impossible to tell if he was wearing any other clothes. Since the room they were in looked like part of Arbatov’s office, he was quite sure his former manager’s knees were resting on a cold, hard, marble floor. “I see my gift made it to you undamaged.”

“Yes. And such lovely looks and colouring he has, too. Do you think it’s his natural hair?”

“It’s probably as fake and flashy as the rest of him.”

“Oh well, I suppose if he starts getting too high maintenance, I can always just piss on him to bleach his hair.” Shuu’s face blanched at that.

“Hmm. I would suggest you have him checked out before you do too much with him. I wouldn’t want you to catch his stupidity or any mental infirmities from him.”

“Ah, the little suka [bitch] had grand designs, did he?”

“He was capable enough as a business manager for me, but he must have gotten bored, because he became entrepreneurial and started aiming for a position high above his station. His last screw up almost caused a problem at his workplace with the police and other authorities, and his bumbling almost harmed someone of interest.”

“I understand. I’m sure I can keep him occupied and on a tight leash. I thank you for the amusing toy. At the very least, he’ll be a nice decoration, and perhaps in time a decent distraction.”

Asami nodded, starting to wrap up the call. “He’s your problem now. Besides, it was the least I could do. That gift you sent me will impress important guests for a very long time. Spasiba [thank you].”

The Russian gave a vague wave of the hand holding his glass. “Pozhaluysta, bolshoi pozhaluysta [You are welcome, very welcome]. Until next time then, Asami.”

“Dasvidanya [Goodbye], tovarisch [casual friend, ally].” Mikhail nodded to someone behind the camera, then turned to look at his new pet. The last image Asami saw before the called ended was Arbatov's hand holding the leashes come to face level with his new possession, and a crooked finger raise Sudou's chin up to regard his face. “Itak, s chego nachat… [Now, where to start with you…].”

 

The Clinic

 

"Are you sure you’ve got everything you need to take with us? I still have time to go back to your apartment in case we missed anything..." Takato asked Aki as they waited to be picked up and taken to their new home.

"Nah, as long as I have my cameras, I’m all set."

"Hey, what about your vintage t-shirts and jeans?" Kou piped in.

"They’re in the suitcase. Kou. You packed them yourself for Aki; don't you remember?"

Scratching his head, Kou thought a moment until it dawned on him that he had indeed, and blushing in embarrassment, let out a nervous laugh. "Oh, yeah, I did, didn't I?" Aki and Takato exchanged worried looks with each other over his head without his noticing.

As the responsible one, Takato asked: "Are you really alright with this, Kou? You don't have to go with us. You know that, right?" Aki reached over and hugged his friend.

Hugging him back tightly, Kou pressed his face onto Aki's shoulder and mumbled: "That giant blond behemoth scares the living hell out of me."

"You mean that jerk, Souh?" Takato asked rubbing Kou's back in a soothing fashion to calm him down. "You don't have to worry about him, I won't let him hurt you. And if he did try anything, Aki would grab him around his ankle and bite him.” For their friend’s sake, Akihito let the slight to his height and fighting prowess slide with just a glare.

Rubbing his eyes with his fist just like a little child would, Kou nodded his head and whispered "Really?"

"Really. Do you remember the story of David and Goliath? Well, I am David and Suoh is Goliath, and I’m sure I don't have to remind you who defeated whom and came out the winner."

"Pinky swear?"

"Huh?" Takato’s eyes widened at Kou in surprise, but seeing he was totally serious, Takato shook his head then stuck his pinky finger out and the two friends entwined their little fingers to seal the promise.

"Hey, what about me?" Aki demanded, and the three friends completed a new pinky swear that would create a lasting bond forever that they just didn't recognize at the time. The three of them jumped when they heard a loud knock on the door and then one of the men who was guarding the hallway opened it and Asami Ryuichi walked in, looked at the trio and their bags and nodded.

"It’s time."

xxxxxxxxxx

The drive to the safe-house was a long and rather quiet one. Takato and Kou were too busy exploring every nook and cranny they could find in the limo, squealing in delight after coming across the refrigerator stocked with expensive food and alcohol that they could never dream of affording on their own. Kou even started playing with all the switches he could get his hands on just to see what they did. He immediately froze when the divider separating them from the front seat slid open and the intimidating face from his nightmares turned to stare back at them with dark sunglasses covering his eyes. Gulping nervously, he immediately dropped his fingers and scooted over closer on the seat next to Takato. Takato glared back at the giant and was just about ready to give him the finger when the window slid shut. "Hey, look at what I found!” Takato picked up two sets of headsets which were connected to the limo's bluetooth system and they both put them on, then high fived each other. After fiddling with them for a short time they figured out they could listen to their favourite rap music streaming on them.

Akihito was sitting across from Asami and couldn't keep his eyes away from the smouldering golden gaze that was staring back at him like he was getting ready to pounce and devour him. This caused Aki to shiver, but not at all in a bad way. The image of the man’s amazing bared body striding out of the night’s shadows was one hell of a first impression. The businessman hadn't said another word since he had picked them up, and it was getting rather nerve wracking just being observed like a specimen. When they had first got into the limo, Asami had read the newspaper, then looked at the messages on his cell phone. But, once he seemed to have run out of things to do, he began “Aki watching”. Since his friends were occupied, Aki decided to try and strike up a conversation with his saviour.

"Do I have something on my face?"

"Why do you ask?"

"Duh, because you keep staring at me like I do."

_'Mmm, I want to lick him all over to find out what he tastes like. He is much too tempting in such close quarters, and I don't know how much longer I can hold off on making him mine.'_

"Shut up, damn you.”

"Excuse me?!" Blinking, Asami realized he had spoken his thoughts out loud instead of just to his wolf.

_'You idiot! Now, look at what you've done. You've gone and upset my mate!'_ In all their centuries together, they had lived as one being. This strife had never happened before. Asami was a born wolf and there were certain codes of ethics and rules they both lived by to make it work out amicably for the both of them. He’d never lost control of his thoughts with his wolf and never ever spoke them out loud in front of anyone.

_'Shut the hell up before I skin you alive, you blasted cur.'_

"Pardon me, but did I do something to offend you?"

"What; no, of course not."

"Then why did you just tell me to shut up?" Asami was at a loss for words for the first time in his long life thanks to his cursed wolf, and mentally berated himself for allowing it to happen in the first place.

"I apologize. I had just finished a meeting with a difficult client earlier before I picked you three up, and it seems I’m still agitated enough to have forgotten my manners."

"Well, I guess that's understandable…, so I’ll accept your apology. Thank you."

_'Oh, that's a good one. Why, one of the pack's pups could have come up with a better reason than that lame brain excuse for insulting our mate.'_

"If you don't shut the hell up, I'll......." Realizing from the look he got that he had done it again, Asami swore out loud in frustration. "Shit…”

_'Yeah, that's right. Shit. You did it again, you big dumbass. Here, let me take control before you chase our mate away for good with your stupid mouth. Oh, now you’ve gone and done it. Look, he's picking up one of those things his friends are wearing on their heads. Well done, great job. Congratulations, dick wad.'_ Asami closed his eyes and rubbed his temple, trying to ease the headache now forming thanks to the ranting demon wolf from hell inside his head.

xxxxxxxxxx

Finally arriving at the Sion industrial park (none too soon for his sanity’s sake), Asami got out of the limousine as his number one and two Betas held the passenger doors of the vehicle open and his guards took up their positions. It didn’t please Asami or his wolf very much when Akihito got out with his friends on the other side of the vehicle. Looking around, unsure why they were here of all places, they moved together around the back of the limo as Suoh let the door close louder than he normally would in irritation. Kou startled at the sudden noise, and both fair-haired boys glared at the massive escort before Aki nudged Kou’s arm and went to walk beside him as Takato placed himself squarely between his two friends and the large pain in his ass. Suoh grunted and followed his Alpha’s “guests” into the main doors of the manufacturing plant. Which was a much much larger building that went further back than in seemed to from the front. The safety warnings and equipment notices outside the double fireproof doors began to dwindle the further away from the entrance they got. The outside windows turned into large skylights, and the slight smell of cleaning products and chemicals gave way to filtered air. After what felt like walking two long sides of a huge rectangle, the group stopped at a bay and got into three golf carts that were awaiting them. There was a few minutes of confusion and discord as Asami, Kirishima and Suoh had assumed they’d do what they normally did with VIP visitors here and have the head VIP ride with Asami (that is, Akihito) and a pair of guards in the four seater cart, the second VIP ride with Kei and guards, and the VIP security team leader ride with Suoh.

Unfortunately, the boys didn’t have any such rankings among themselves, hadn’t been apprised of the etiquette of riding golf carts with a security team, and didn’t really give two shits as they had their own ideas. All three thought they’d ride together and either do “rock/paper/scissors” to see who’d drive or at worst, let the security dude do it. Asami and his wolf enjoyed the antics of the boys as an increasingly frustrated Kei tried to order/explain what they were doing while an ominous Suoh started to glower like a dangerous volcano about to blow. Finally putting his foot firmly down, Asami brooked no arguments as he assigned Kei and a guard to drive Kou and Takato together. Akihito was given a choice of riding with him or Suoh and their guards. Aki stubbornly looked up at Suoh, daring him to say something. Suoh glared right back, and silently crossed his arms over his big chest. The blond sighed and scowled, then turned to Asami’s cart and climbed in without a word. He stoutly refused to even glance at Asami as they got under way, missing the dark grin the man and the wolf shared. After driving over a skywalk bridge between the first building and a second, in fact taller building that was situated back within an old quarry, Asami started a one-sided conversation with the big-eyed boy beside him, explaining how this had started out as just another manufacturing site, but after the economic bubble burst in Japan decades ago, it had been a long abandoned site which Sion had accumulated as part of a corporate takeover. The building was easier to refurbish than tear down and rebuild, and it became first onsite accommodations for foreign workers and trainers at Sion, then enlarged for Japanese workers and spouses to move into and raise their families close to work. There were now daycare centers , immersive elementary and middle schools in several languages, a high school, a shopping district, a hospital, doctors offices and several after hours clinics. All regular city services were provided, and twenty four transit was available into Tokyo for those workers or family members attending outside high schools and higher education courses. Asami seemed quite proud of this facility, and it was obvious that he took great pride in providing this enclave for his workforce. As they descended from the bridge down several ramps to floor level, he could see a large open area with playing fields and an indoor park setting lit by masses of skylights. The large ground level windows looked out over acres of landscaped parkland outside the building as well. At some point, this had stopped becoming just a place to hide in Aki’s mind and started to look like a giant parkour course for him to learn and explore. He wondered at what all opportunities might be here for him as he covertly glanced over at their host, only to find the man studying him again. Starting to pink a little over his cheeks, he told himself to never fucking mind the gorgeous man beside him whose arm was brushing his. His suit lint was probably worth more then his cameras and clothes together. And just then, a lovely life size image of the man’s groin flashed through his brain. Groaning quietly, the boy’s cheeks pinked into a definite blush and he covered his eyes with a near silent groan. Asami observed this and smiled inwardly.

‘ _Do you think our boy is thinking about us right now, Ryuichi?’_

_‘Yes, I do. I’d certainly rather have him think about us instead of what happened at the club.’_ His wolf growled in agreement.

_‘So then, oh great Alpha, tell me: how are you going to go about seducing him?’_

_‘The same way we hunt. Single him out from his herd, and wear him down as fast as possible.’_

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The carts stopped at a bank of elevators at the base of an outside wall close to where they’d entered. Kirishima walked over to the furthest doors and swiped a security card. The doors opened several seconds later, and Kirishima and Suoh entered the elevator car, followed by the guards, Kou and Takato. Akihito was just about to step into the car when a large hand gently touched his arm. He looked up to see Asami shake his head and say the car was too full, they’d wait for it to come back. The comical sight of his friends and his future mate’s friends eyes bugging out and mouths hanging open was cut off by the closing door. The blond turned and was about to demand answers when his host cut him off, saying these two end elevators were the only ones that could access the upper four floors of the building where he had an office and apartments along with Kirishima and Suoh. Slowly edging closer to the blond in front of him, he stood near enough behind him that at the boy’s first move when the elevator dinged its arrival, his back brushed against Asami’s chest. Choking back a gasp, Akihito gave him a quick “deer in the headlights” look, then darted into the elevator. If he was running for safety, he soon realized he was shit outta luck when his pursuer cornered him after maneuvering him into the back of the car. The door slid shut, and a large hand brushed the blond’s cheekbone before caressing his jaw. Bending forward, the dark man stopped above the petrified boy’s ear and murmured “I can understand the temptation some others might have given in to. You are so alluring, it’s difficult to restrain myself just from kissing you.” Inside his head, his wolf growled low, twitching his tail, waiting. Pulling back, Asami put his head against the wall, forearm braced over it, and stared intently down at the blue eyes below nervously looking up at him, using his low, sultry voice to coax him. “Why don’t you spend the night with me? An evening filled with pleasure should quiet your uneasiness and make you forget last night’s unpleasantness…”

Blue sparks flared in those eyes as the blond suddenly snapped out of his feelings of guilt and weakness as his helplessness disappeared. Straightening up and suddenly pushing both hands against his captor's sternum, he forced a surprised Asami and wolf to take a step back as he glared up at them. “And what would it take to make me forget you wanted to rape and kill me yourself the other night because I knew too much?! I don’t whore myself out to pay off my debts, Asami Ryuichi. I damn well won’t beg you for protection. And sure as fuck you’re not going to sweet talk me into giving it up to you for the first time either, asshole. So back off!” Shoving the crime lord aside, he exited the elevator before the doors finished opening and angrily strode down the hall. Asami and his wolf stood stock-still for a moment, amazed at the turn of events. When was the last time someone had turned them down, much less so vehemently? He slowly walked out of the car, deep in thought, but by the time he got up to his normal pace, Asami had a ferocious grin on his face. The boy’s first time!? He huffed out a laugh as his wolf settled down to wait in his mind, rumbling with his own excitement: his “little” mate was no pushover Omega.


	9. Looks Like We're in for Nasty Weather

Akihito sat up in the beams near the ceiling, on a truss where the diagonal braces almost met, one arm each snugged around a brace to secure his seat while his feet dangled four stories over the open floor. He was too busy brooding to notice that his choice of perches was causing a stir down below, between the kids excitedly pointing up at him, the adults milling around in concern and the security team trying to decide how to bring Asami-sama's "special guest" down safely. He was only answering ringtones he recognized without having to scrabble to check the phone screen to see who was trying to contact him. If Kou or Takato were taking time out of their work days to talk to him, he figured it was the least he could do to answer them.

Boredom had set in after the first few days of getting used to the complex. Kou had met a sweet young lady that was an aid at the preschoolers daycare center and had started hanging out there as a helper. Turned out he had a way with kids; both of his friends maintained that he wasn't into early childcare as much as looking for new playmates. Takato had actually been tapped by Kirishima for administration duties. He was asked to help with a data entry project soon after their arrival, and was now helping to analyze the data compiled. He had already been promoted above what he had been doing at his now old employer. And Aki... Well, Aki was in charge of a recovery unit. His own recovery, that is. He had stayed within the complex, behaving, taking it easy, and slowly going out of his ever-lovin' mind. Not even tempted to sneak away for any photo jobs because he was unable to hold his camera in both hands while the half cast was cradling his wrist and thumb.

He had started wandering around in the group of building for something to do, working out his own short cuts and finding his own super secret ways around the place just by opening random doors and seeing where they lead to. That's also how he’d found out he had his own guard detail following his every move. Kinda hard to miss that when he's the only person he's seen for an hour or more in open corridors, but there's always echoing footsteps behind him wherever his journeys took him. He wasn't allowed out into the city on the bus or by car, escorted or otherwise. Even if he had a shitload of games, the Internet and satellite t.v. at his apartment, he was bored and restless. His friends were busy during the day, and most of his neighbours, (when he actually saw any, that is), while friendly with each other, were politely distant to the outsiders. And why were there always so many dogs around? It seemed like literally everybody there had at least one. Weird.

The only person who went out of his way to try and see him regularly was Asami Ryuichi, and that was purely for his own reasons. He hadn't stopped hitting on Akihito, but now he he was more subtle about what he wanted, teasing him more, almost like he was trying to coax him into physical touches and spending time with him. The blond, for his part, steadfastly refused to be suckered into anything, not even brushing past Asami in a crowded hallway. He was more than happy to stand aside and let the man pass. It wasn't like he had anywhere important to be, anyways.

Five weeks after they'd arrived at their new home, Akihito was taken by Suoh and a team of young men to the medical center he had originally been treated at for x-rays of his wrist to see how the healing was progressing. As excited as he was about being out and about again, he was kinda miffed that Asami hadn't made some kind of an excuse to accompany him the the appointment himself, or to meet him there in person. It miffed him a lot more that he was actually thinking that way. He didn't need or want the big lug around, hearing that deep voice call him "kitten", or having those golden eyes feel him up, whether he looked at Asami or not. That teasing smirk, those quiet moments where Asami just sat back and seemed to drink him in. The way he'd felt in the elevator when Asami had leaned over close to him, talking low in his ear... Ugh. The boy frowned, not at all happy with the direction his thoughts were going recently when he wasn't paying attention. Asami this, Asami-sama that. Asami could kiss his ass, but the perv would probably enjoy carrying out the suggestion, and probably try to lick him too. He needed to get away from him, get away from his goons, and just get some breathing space.

He should have been more careful with what he'd wished for. His doctor, pleased with the results of the exam, took away the partial cast and gave him a wrist brace instead, telling him he could slowly start using his hand and moving his wrist about some, but not to overdo it. Asami had called him later that afternoon, congratulating him on his recovery thus far, and to admonish him not to start swinging from the street lamps in the courtyard. That lead to an already provoked Akihito suggesting that Asami perform an unnatural sex act on himself, which in turn lead to Asami stating that he’d rather perform it on his kitten, then proceeded to give a rather precise and detailed description of what exactly he’d like to do to the blond during said act. Which, in turn, caused the boy to swear at the handsome businessman and hang up on the call. However, that had been some days ago. The businessman had texted a few times, letting him know he was thinking of Akihito, but was unable to call or visit due to a business rival coming to Tokyo, wanting to do a joint venture with Sion. And as much as he let Asami know about the aches and pains of his wrist and hand as he started to use them regularly again, it stilled pissed the boy off that he was irked that he couldn’t visit with his benefactor himself. That type of complication in his life, he did not need.

Just as the first week of his self rehabilitation was wrapping up, he got a request from Suoh himself, asking if he thought he could help a security detail get a couple of photos of a person of interest. Akihito was mentally giving the huge man a wet, sloppy kiss on the side of his face as he coolly answered that he’d see what he could do. After letting Kou and Takato know he was going out with an escort for a while “on business”, he met the towering blond down in the administration offices front foyer, along with five other suited men and a compliment of the ever present dogs. Suoh explained that this person they needed a picture of was suspected of trying to compromise Sion employees in order to get information about current business going on. The big man handed a ridiculously tiny-looking (compared to his large hand, at least) compact camera to Akihito and asked if he thought he could use the equipment. Akihito barely looked at it before snapping off a half dozen rapid photos of the assembled group, first using both hands to hold the camera, then each hand separately. Determining that all the photos were both clear and usable, the team headed out. Taking two vehicles, both blonds, a pair of guards and three dogs traveled in a SUV while the remaining men drove in a following sedan with the rest of the canines in the back seat. Aki sat in the back, watching the city get closer outside his window, excitement starting to hum through him.

Akihito and a guard were dropped off at the front entrance of a very expensive hotel. Making their way inside, both men stopped in the lounge area off the lobby, taking seats within sight of the elevators. The two talked amiably for a while, chatting away about nothing while keeping an eye on who got out whenever an elevator door slid open. Finally, Aki’s companion nodded casually towards a cluster of people getting out at the lobby, telling him it was the auburn haired woman they needed pictures of and whomever she spoke with. Leaving the guard for a while, he moved towards the bar area where the woman had entered. Sitting down by the door, he ordered a cola with a lemon twist to blend in with the other drinks being served in there and started to fiddle around with the camera, acting for all the world like a tourist with his fair hair and skin, going over the shots he took of his trip that day. He had snapped about ten photos of people in business attire that had sat down and talked to the woman within a thirty minute time frame when she abruptly got up and walked past him, heading out of the bar. Putting on the light wind jacket that he had brought with him, seeming like he was heading out for a bit (while hopefully changing the appearance of what he was wearing), Akihito slipped out of the bar after the woman, stopping inside the main entrance doors when he saw her approach her waiting ride. A man in a dark suit was holding open the door of a limo when who should get out of the back but suave as hell Asami fucking Ryuichi. The blond watched for a moment before going for his phone and snapping a picture of the CEO of Sion bending down to lightly kiss the cheek of the woman he’d been observing. As Asami handed her into the vehicle, Akihito turned back into the lobby and handed the camera over to his partner for safekeeping before they left the hotel.

Waiting for their own ride, Aki turned and stepped into the crowd flowing past the hotel and was lost from sight in seconds. Realizing he didn’t have anywhere to go or anything to do, he got more pissed when it registered in his brain that he well might have just shot himself in the foot. It wasn’t too likely that he would be allowed out again without a small army monitoring him every second, or asking him to help out again if he just took off. Sighing, he went into a convenience store, bought some drinks, junk food snacks and ramen cups before heading back to the hotel. He tapped his companion on the shoulder, who was looking around for him in the swell of people on the sidewalk, and quietly offered him a drink and some Pocky when he turned round, just as the SUV pulled up. Suoh glanced at Aki’s bag with suspicion, but said nothing as they got in. On the drive back to the industrial park, Aki texted the picture he took to Asami’s cell phone number along with the message “have fun with your night on the town”. Moments later, he got a reply: “thank you, I will. wish you were her”. Not pleased that Asami wasn’t even curious about how he got the pic, he texted back “better watch where you lay hands on that one. she got up close and personal with quite a few people before you showed up and didn’t even wash her hands afterwards”. His reply was “understood. even now she’s trying to snuggle up to me”. Frowning slightly, he texted “gross. if you catch something from her, don’t bring it near me”. “don’t wait up, kitten” was his only answer. Scowling, he put his phone away and huffed as he sat back, crossing his arms over his chest.

That had been a week ago, and he had been in a bad mood ever since. Asami seemed to have taken him seriously, as neither hide nor hair of the man had been seen or heard by the blond since that night. Each hour had started to drag, waiting for any communication from the older man, but nothing had been forthcoming. The only change in his situation was that the few times he had seen his partner from that night afterwards, the man had stopped to talk for a moment, and introduced him if he was with someone else. At his eight week check up, when the doctor had taken away the brace and pronounced him as good as new, he wasn’t even surprised that Asami didn’t call or text later. As soon as he was delivered back to the Sion employee site, he decided he wanted to be alone, where no one could bother him, and instead of descending the ramp to the lower levels, he had gone straight to an access ladder bolted into the wall and had climbed straight up to the rafters, and then walked out onto the beam. He didn’t even care about the open space below him as he worked his way out among the braces until he took a seat.

Almost forty minutes later, he heard the ringtone he was waiting for, “Smooth Operator” by Sade. Taking out his phone, he answered with “So, have fun on your date?” The rich, sultry voice he’d been waiting to hear chuckled on the other end.

“Not nearly as much as I could have had with you, kitten.”

Rolling his eyes, Aki snorted and said “Oh, is that why you’ve been so eager to see me lately. I’d wondered if it was something I’d said.”

“Actually, it was what you haven’t said yet. Specifically, ‘take me’, and ‘I’m yours’.”

“Don't forget my personal favourite, ‘as if’.”

Asami chuckled again and hummed. “I’d prefer a breathless moan, followed by a heartfelt “fuck me, harder”, myself.”

Suppressing a shiver at the dark tones those words were delivered in, the boy shrugged instead and nonchalantly spoke. “Uh huh, and I’d prefer to have this intellectually stimulating conversation over dim sum, but hey, what can you do?”

“Well, kitten, you could come down here right now, and we could continue this someplace more… intimate.” Looking down, he could see see Frick and Frack, the number two and three men of Sion looking more sour and constipated than usual, backing up the man of the hour. And there he was, looking up at him with an amused grin on his face, larger than life and twice as handsome.

Not quite willing to give in yet, he came back with “Really. And that’s why you’ve stayed away? To finish you course of antibiotics from whatever disease she gave you?”

“Now now, kitten. I was away on business, and needed to concentrate on what I was doing. That’s the only reason I wasn’t in touch. But I’m here, now.”

Moving to rest his phone against his forehead, the blond closed his eyes and almost sobbed in a breath, then spoke into his phone again. “Fine. I’ll be right down.” Putting his phone away, he got up and threaded his way between the braces until he came to the opposite wall where another access ladder was located. Climbing down the ladder, he came to the safety locks and kicked it’s quick release loose. Hanging on tightly, he rode the section of rungs in the sliding frame down to just before the end of the ride, and casually stepped off onto the floor before the metal slide rails clanged to a jolting halt. Setting off on a parallel course, he walked past Asami, and without looking at him, growled “Jerk!” before heading away to the doors leading to the private apartments section. Asami rumbled out a laugh as he went to follow their little mate.

_'I don’t understand what happened. Instead of staying close by our mate to offer protection and support, we left him alone and he became more accepting of us?’_

_‘What can I tell you. Absence makes the heart grow fonder, while familiarity breeds contempt. We are talking about our own stubbornly feisty kitten here. He's used to being independent and taking care of himself. When he was safe and secure here with nothing he had to do, he got bored.’_

_‘Why do I have the feeling that even if he is only a single human entity now, that we are totally outnumbered?’_

Asami huffed out a laugh at that, quickening his stride when he caught sight of blond hair disappearing around a corner up ahead. _'I hear you, mutt. I hear you.’_


	10. I Hear Hurricanes A-Blowing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Akihito is starting to make himself at home at the Sion enclave, and begins to create mayhem in his own special way. Since it's Father's Day, it seems appropriate that we'd all like to see what happens when the Alphas take exception to his antics, and decide to show him who his "daddy" is...

**********

Asami had started to want to be seen in public in the blond’s company, a big hand resting on his shoulder or on his arm, or possibly on the small of his back if he was being guided somewhere, or occasionally snaking around his waist to pull him in closer if they were in one of the glassed-in elevators in the administration part of the complex. As much as those public displays could fluster him, he’d started enjoying their private times together a great deal more. Pretty much every night the man was there, those strong fingers would start to caress him through his flimsy protective layer of clothing, which did nothing to hide the man’s growing desire for him. They had both almost gotten carried away once already when kissing and rubbing and nibbles had turned into Aki having his shirt peeled off as Asami marked his way down the column of his neck with love bites and rough licks and sucking, only being stopped when the dazed and panting boy realized that his dark haired boyfriend? arm candy? wannabe companion? whatever? had left his shoulders and collarbone to head towards his nipples and all points south of his waistband. It had taken several long minutes of firmly repeating “no” at arm's length, pushing against that muscular chest (which didn’t help his own case for self-restraint any), until Asami finally relented and crushed him in his embrace instead, burying his nose in the unruly blond hair and breathing in deeply until they had both calmed down. Asami had excused himself for the night soon after, and it wasn’t until the next day that Aki realized his shirt was missing and had remained AWOL ever since. He would vehemently deny it if asked, but a few of his restless nights since then had been preoccupied by speculating about what Asami was using his shirt for. Somehow, he doubted the big man used it to clean the mirror after he showered… But the specter of that long, hard body in a shower room, clad in nothing but steam drove the blond off his couch and out the door to wait downstairs to see if the man would message him he was coming by tonight.

Making his way down the stairwell to burn off energy, Akihito made his way over to one of the after dinner cafés to wait. As he walked in, he was displeased to find Konno Ran there and at it again. Shaking his head, he looked around and nodded to a few of the people already present he recognized. Since Suoh had started utilizing him more in security matters around the industrial park and for the odd stakeout on Sion business, he was getting to know more of the younger security team members and being introduced to their friends and colleagues. He was getting quite the network of acquaintances built up here, not to mention people Takato and Kou wanted him to meet. And a lot of the dogs that either roamed about or seemed to patrol the common areas were friendlier with him now too. After several months of living there, the people were finally starting to accept their group in. Except for jerks like Konno. It was a fact of life that wherever the trio went, they would meet at least one person like that. Unfortunately. Even if she was smaller than himself, she seemed to make it her mission to try and either provoke him or intimidate him ever since she had learned that her attempts to flirt with Asami were all for nought when Akihito had come into this café once to sit down at the table she insisted on “sharing” with the CEO of Sion. The man was clearly not remotely interested in her, and had smiled warmly, greeting Akihito without giving her another look. The boy hadn’t protested in the least when Asami had picked him up from his seat beside him and placed him on his lap, one hand softly circling his kneecap as the other lightly held his hip. They talked quietly for hours, sometimes softly bumping their heads together after Asami nuzzled his neck or hair, not even realizing what time it was until Kirishima had called his boss’ phone, telling him the café owner wanted to go home for the night. They then moved on to one of the park benches under a potted crimson japanese maple tree, just enjoying their closeness in the dim light. That evening must have been a signal of sorts to the Sion worker community there, as soon after a number of the young adults either living there as they completed their education or as they started job placements began hanging out with him. That’s where he’d heard about Konno now transferring her unwanted attentions to an unhappy girl of a similar name called Kono Ren. Konno insisted quite loudly that there must have been a mistake somewhere, to have two people of such different backgrounds but close names working as interns in the same department. She had said quite a few times that an Omega (whatever that meant) like Ren should simply change her name to avoid confusing important people, or else just go back to wherever she came from. And that’s when quiet Kono Ren unknowingly became his pet project. 

Takato had worked with her, and had heard that one of her studies in college had been figuring out “cost cheats”, basically, how changing something small and rather insignificant could save big money for a company. He himself didn’t know how to bring this up to Kirishima-san as he worked as just an entry level analyst in one of his departments, but he’s wanted to as Konno Ran’s bullying had been affecting Kono’s work and life here. So Akihito, be the shy, retiring kind himself, walked up to Takato at a lunch break one day soon after, and the pair of them approached a gathering of office supervisors and administrators surrounding an outside picnic table that Suoh and Kirishima were sharing lunch at. Without so much as an “excuse us”, the pair walked up to the table, past all the stares and frowns from the people who looked for all the world like a parliament of owls, and the blond asked Kirishima if he could borrow Takato to go into the city along with Kou to commemorate an upcoming anniversary day together, just the three of them for a few hours. While Kirishima made a note on his phone to consult with Asami on this, Suoh glanced at Akihito and nodded, then regarded Takato for a good while as the young man steadfastly ignored him. After Kirishima said he would get back to them shortly with their answer, Akihito started to make pleasant small talk, asking if he’d heard about one of the new interns having an interest in finding ways to boost company profits by cutting costs on incremental items. Soon Aki was yelling across the picnic area, asking if anyone had seen his “friend” Kono Ren. Shortly thereafter, the young lady in question was ushered to the table. Takato sat down with her after making introductions, and helped her explain, for instance, how Sion could save tens of millions of yen in ink alone each year by just changing the standard font used internally for printing emails, faxes, memos and department meeting notes. Akihito left soon afterwards, leaving the quartet sitting there, discussing some of her ideas until well after lunch was over.

Which worked out in the blond’s favor. His good deed for the day done, Akihito gave himself permission to act up on one of his roving assignments: normally, he would wait for Suoh to text him with the time, date and parameters of an area he was supposed to either try and break into or sneak out of to test security. But not today. Today, he messaged Suoh from his own locked computer inside his impenetrable office within the security department itself that he was going to use the fluorescent green post-it notes on his desk to leave messages wherever he was in the administrative building. So saying, he drew am emoji sticking his tongue out on a square and stuck it right in the middle of Suoh’s computer screen, then took a picture on his phone and sent it. Suoh’s reply was a string of very rude words with threats of death and dismemberment, while Kirishima just asked him not to disrupt business too much, and Asami wished him luck and promised him a nice reward if he could avoid being captured for the rest of the day until business hours were over; but warned him not to do anything stupid or there would be DIRE CONSEQUENCES. Aki took that as a personal challenge. First off, he got a cart from the cleaning room, and emptied Takato’s personal items from his desk, followed by his business equipment, computer screen, keyboard and mouse being removed and piled onto his chair and both being left in an unused office. Then, he “borrowed” a box of disposable cleaning gloves from the store room on Kirishima’s office floor and taking them down to the promenade of shops, he went into a certain florist shop and had them fill each glove with helium and tied them off with colorful string to look like balloons, making sure it was all billed to Kirishima Kei’s business account at the store. Then, accessing the admin building once more, he sat in a little-used stairwell and taped the thumb and three fingers of each gloved down, (with several roles of tape he’d “liberated” from supply closets after leaving his post-it notes behind), all except for the middle finger, and released half of them in Suoh’s office, returning after he had been in there see what damage the smaller blond had inflicted, and the other half were left to bob around in Kirishima’s office. By this time the word was out and the building was being swept floor by floor by security teams comprised of men and younger “dogs” who were all in training.

From there he lead them on a merry chase through corridors, fire doors and then finally outdoors, onto the rooftop. Which abutted against another, taller building, whose wall and attached drainpipe was easily scaled by an athletic blond who was feeling saucy and bound on mayhem. He was finally cornered, climbing up the cross braces of a squat tower with an array of antennas and satellite dishes on a platform on top of it. He took a quick breather on the top as he put on a pair of fingerless gloves he’d kept in his back pocket, while a pair of security men waited below, pacing around the base of tower, looking up as several of the “human” members of the team encouraged their less than eager Canis colleagues to try climbing up with them. Nervous four-legged hunters learned how to climb on the go with an occasional steadying hand up or shove from below by the two-legged ones. As they all got to the top and struggled onto the platform itself, Aki stood up and applauded, then wished them all luck getting down as he swung over the edge and started back himself. Since there was nothing below them that the furry ones could brace their front paws against to go done head first, or even something like a tall ladder on an incline for them to hook their front paws over the rung as their back paws stepped down to the next rung, they were stuck up there until they changed to their human forms (which was strictly forbidden when any of the Alpha’s three guests were nearby), or they’d have to wait and drape themselves over the shoulders of their bipedal companions and clutch them tight between their front and back legs on the climb down.

Akihito, on the other hand, was bouncing from side to side as he went down the inside of the tower, building up momentum as he went. When he was about a metre (three feet) above the highest any of the guards below could reach up, he bounced across one more time, then leapt back, hands first, catching hold of a horizontal metal bar as he swung his feet and legs through a crosspiece and out over the heads of the security below, sailing several metres away before arching his back and landing feet first and tucking into a forward roll, then launching into a sprint for the nearest side of the building, which had a fire escape stairway on the outside of it. Jumping onto the landing at the top of the stairs, he gripped the two railings and kicked his feet forward, up and over the handrails so that the sides of his shoe insteps were locked against the rails as he loosened his grip somewhat on the rails and slid down to the next landing, just to turn the corner and repeat. Doing this down seven flights of stairs wore the hell out of the palms of his gloves, but his shoes soles held up pretty good considering, and he was leaping over the side of the railing from the last level above the ground before his pursuers were even half way down, yelling into the microphones of their ear pieces. 

Running over to another building, he slid a thin metal bracket he’d “borrowed” for the occasion into the outside seam of a door, opposite where the hinges were inside, and pushed in the lock bolt until it was far enough out of the socket in the door frame that he could lever the bent metal around the edge of the metal door and pull it open enough for his fingers to wriggle inside and then yank it open. He spun around and slammed the door shut by its bar handle, catching a glimpse of his hunters at the bottom of the fire stairs. He could also hear the sound of feet pounding down the inside stairwell and the hallway behind him, which suited him just fine as he was heading underground anyways. He jumped from partway down the stairs to the next flight down, going another story down before accessing the door that went to the janitors change room. 

Finding a locker with a change of clothing in it close to his size was easy as the locker doors didn’t have locks on them. He loved trusting little souls like that; they made his getaways so much easier. He took the time to wet his hair down and comb it (with a borrowed comb, of course), then dampened a hand towel and wiped down his face, neck and arms before putting on the slightly larger dress pants, shirt and tie over his t-shirt and jeans. Walking out of the change room towards the walkway, he moved his way into a bunch of workers heading home across the access tunnel to the main square. As he was heading out the doorway, ready to cut across the square to buy a drink and quench his raging thirst before contacting the security office and letting them know where he could be found for debriefing, a large, strong hand reached out, grabbed him by the shoulder and yanked him out of the flow of pedestrians. The blond could make an educated guess by how far his feet were dangling from the floor that Suoh must have him in his clutches. What he couldn’t guess was how angry Asami was from his crossed arms, feet firmly planted apart and narrowed golden eyes glaring at him. With a jerk of his chin, the dark haired man moved off, cutting a swath across the crowded floor as Suoh set Aki on his feet and marched after him, keeping the troublemaker within arm’s reach ahead of him with a firm grip. Aki tried to swallow with his dusty dry throat, then unfazed at being caught, stole a quick glance back at the head of security. The fair-haired giant caught his look and gave him a quick nod, his face calm before looking straight ahead again. Well, if Suoh wasn’t pissed with him, how bad could it be? 

Judging from the look on Kirishima’s stone face as he opened the limo door, pretty bad. Asami entered the vehicle and sat down, lighting one of his cigarettes as Suoh escorted the blond to the car door and closed it after he sat down, standing in front of it to ensure he didn’t try and escape that way as Kirishima walked behind the car and made his way over to the window opened by Asami. Aki looked at him as he stopped beside the window and waited while his boss removed the smoke from his lips, and asked a question that might have been in Cantonese or Mandarin or Korean for all he knew. The private administration assistant answered him in kind, and bowed, handing him a tablet. Touching the screen, Asami's eyes moved as if he were reading something, then frowned slightly as he touched the screen again. Snatches of speech could be heard, volume too low for the boy to catch properly, but more than enough it seemed for the man beside him to listen to. The frown turned angry before he handed the tablet back through the window again and snapped something to the man outside before closing the window. Kirishima bowed once more as the car started to pull away from the building, catching the blond’s eye with a quick wink before they drove out of sight.

Asami was fuming as they drove in silence into the city. He only moved to put out his Dunhill before lighting another one immediately, which the boy sitting beside him took as a bad sign. Maybe he shouldn’t have placed that order for all those pastry trays and the retirement cake that said “thank you for all your hard work, ojiisan” on it (a generic term for male senior citizens) on it and charged it to the man himself. Oh well, it was too late now to reconsider.

The pair sat in tense silence until Asami finished his second cigarette and tamped it out in the ashtray. “Just what part, exactly, of ‘do not do anything stupid’ was unclear to you, Akihito?”

“What? I gave fair warning to Suoh, you and Kirishima that I’d be running a security check today, and what I’d be doing. It was a hell of a lot more than any infiltrator would do. If he or Kirishima didn’t like it, they should have said so in no uncertain terms, right at the start.”

“That’s not what I meant. I’m talking about those stupid, unnecessary risks you took in getting away.”

“Unnecessary risks? What do you mean?”

Pulling out his smartphone, Asami accessed the file that had been sent to his smartphone and fast forwarded through it until he came to the part that had his heart in his throat and had alarmed his wolf. Letting the video play at normal speed, he turned the screen towards Akihito and coolly asked if this jogged his memory. And there he was, sliding down the fire escape railings. Admittedly, it might seem kinda terrifying from the security camera’s point of view, looking up at him from six stories below. But for him, it was like sitting on the top of the big hill at the start of a roller coaster ride, teetering on the cusp of hurtling down the steep slope. In other words, exciting fun but no big deal. 

By now, they had pulled off the street into a secured underground parking garage, stopping near several guards with their four-legged counterparts by an elevator. Asami sat there, simmering and implacable, expecting an answer as he ignored the opened car door and the bowing guard holding it. Now feeling somewhat pissed himself, Akihito worked his tongue around to try and get some saliva going to moisten his mouth before he answered, but gave up and snarked: “Again, what? It’s the same as what got me away from your molesting ass the first night we met…” 

Which was entirely the wrong thing to say. Aki didn’t even get to see the look on Asami’s face before the man outside was shoved aside with the door and there was a solid thud on the roof of the vehicle before his door was ripped open and he was yanked out of the limo by the front of his shirt, then half hauled, half pushed backwards through the elevator door. He got shoved against the back wall and pinned there by the fist clenching his shirts as Asami barked out an order and flicked a security card at the man who responded to him. He took the card and scanned it before having it snatched back, then depressed the override button with one hand as he pressed the top button with the other, and quickly got the hell out out and began to bow as the door slid closed. 

Even as they started up, Asami didn’t relent. He towered over the blond, trying to intimidate him with the full weight of his presence into some sign of submission or regret over making his Alphas fear for him in their own ways. Only problem was, unlike every other person he could dominate, wolf or otherwise, this kid wasn’t anywhere close to backing down or acknowledging him as his superior. And neither of them, furred or smooth skinned, was going to let the boy leave the penthouse without his position being made perfectly clear to him, and getting his promise to behave and be obedient in return. 

As they neared the top of the building, Asami roughly undid the boy’s tie and yanked it off him, releasing his shirts to take hold of his hands, cross his wrists and bind them tight enough that the blond couldn’t wriggle loose. As the elevator came to a stop, he hauled the boy to him and then up, over his shoulder as the door opened. Akihito yelled in surprise as Asami easily carried him down the hall a few strides, then scanned his card for the door to open and let the big Alphas enter their lair. Barely delaying long enough to toe off his expensive shoes before going into his living room, he dropped the blond headfirst off his perch, flipping him over until he stopped with his back against the darker man’s chest, frozen in surprise as Asami’s arms came around his trim body and began undoing his pants and jeans. The blond snapped out of it and started to struggle just as the yakuza pushed him headlong over the padded arm of the couch. He yelled again and tried to kick as Asami's large hands first yanked up both shirts, then pulled down all three layers of clothing to mid-thigh, baring the boy’s ass to the room. Then one hand pushed his head down to the cushioned couch seat as the other pulled the boy back slightly until he was balanced on the over-stuffed arm of the couch, arse up in the air, undefended as an angry Asami brought his open hand down on it, hard. The loud, heavy WHACK! rent the air as Aki forgot to breathe in shock, just to gasp as another hard blow landed. Ten more followed, not a single one playful or meant to tingle, but decidedly meant to make it difficult to sit without some pain and with definite bruising for at least a week. Then, before he lost any more control, the Alphas backed off, leaving the boy over the couch arm, Asami feeling his wolf pacing and growling in his head as he stalked over to the bar and roughly grabbed a decanter of whisky and swallowed a couple of mouthfuls straight from it. Aki was left breathless for a moment, then he almost started panting in panic until he stilled once more, then pushed himself up off the couch and turned to face his antagonist, shaking his legs to let the pants and briefs slid the rest of the way down so he could kick them off to free his legs. Asami watched him mostly pull his shirts down, even with his wrists still tied together, before he glared across the room at the older man in contempt and snarled “Is that all you got, old man? Worse assholes then you’ve tried to break me, bastard, and’ll it’ll take a lot more than that to do it.” He spat on the carpeted floor in Asami’s direction, body tensed, ready to fight or flee to survive. 

Asami blinked, anger suddenly draining away from them as they stared at their boy, half naked and mostly defenseless, not at all looking like a hissing, spitting fluff ball of a kitten trying to bluff its way out, but more like a leopard cub, angry and seething, claws out and teeth bared, not as lethal as an full grown adult, but still more than ready to do damage to its tormentor before trying to get away. Wolf and human took in that spirit and fire, and started to love their Akihito for it, right then and there. The pack leader put the decanter down, bent his head and took in several deep, cleansing breaths before he was calm enough to address their boy. “Akihito, I wasn’t trying to just bully you. Your stunt scared me badly enough that it made me need to lash out and hurt you for making me feel like that. Nobody has ever made me feel so terrified and enraged and helpless as what you did, without even thinking about it. For the gods’ sake, Akihito. You could have been paralyzed or had serious, life threatening internal injuries or head trauma if you had fallen, and I would’ve been powerless to help you. I wouldn’t have even been able to get to you before you’d most likely died. Nothing I owned or could buy or bargain for or even given up could have brought you back. You would have shattered me by dieing, and never would have even known what you meant to me because I didn’t even know it until I saw that damn video.” Asami leaned back against the bar as he ran his hand through his hair, feeling drained.

Aki slowly stood up, wary but no longer ready to fight to make his escape. He kept his distance, but he was willing to talk some, at least. “Asami, what I did today was nothing. I’ve had to do worse shit than that to get away unharmed, even before my newspaper job. Takato was alone at the orphanage, the only tall, light brown haired kid there in a sea of dark haired Asians. After my mother came back from university overseas with me, she dropped me off at her mother’s house and took off. My grandmother only raised me for five years until she got too sick to anymore, and gave me up. I was used to being picked on and kicked around and called “gaijin” (foreigner) and “hāfu” (half Japanese) and worse for my hair and eye color, and when Takato and I saw each other we latched on, hard. We had gotten pretty good at watching out for each other until Kou arrived. His family had been in a bad accident, and he’d lost his parents and older brother and sister while he walked away with barely a scratch. He wasn’t even talking or responding to anything when he arrived, and he’d just curl up in a helpless little ball whenever someone had a go at him. One day Takato and I got sick of it and we waded in to rescue him from a gang of older kids. We were fighting so hard we didn’t even know how bad it was until Kou suddenly got up and ran, grabbed a broom, and started smacking guys across the balls with the handle. That made it stop in a fuckin’ hurry. Since then, we’re all we've got. But every now and then some big ape would take it into head to have a go at me, and if the others weren’t around, I had to get away any way I could, which usually meant going where others couldn’t or wouldn’t go. A few scrapes and sprains were always better than missing teeth and an ass whupping.”

Both men had calmed down considerably by this time, and all tension was gone. Asami beckoned Akihito over, and after a moment, Aki went to him. He held up his hands, and the older man untied them, then rubbed both wrists gently for him. The blond still wasn’t ready to completely forgive and probably not forget just yet, but he was partial to cutting the big guy some slack for lots of something cool and wet to drink, and he hinted that he might allow himself to be bribed with quite a bit of really good food. Asami and wolf were more than willing to try and coerce their little future mate into letting them back onto his good side, happy to do anything from buying sushi samplers from every place in Shinjuku, to taking him out to any dining establishment he wanted, to outright BUYING him any restaurant he wished. The object of their desire let them off with just some orders of his favorite types of sushi, dim sum, Korean barbecued beef and pork, seafood with fried vegetables and noodles and Thai golden crab rice with a couple of beers to wash it all down.

Later, stomach full and feeling a slight alcohol-induced buzz, Akihito regally assented to Asami drawing a hot, sudsy bath for them both to relax and talk in, after the taller man had used the brilliant argument that surely the boy’s gluts and other muscles must be sore and tired from all his exertions that day, not to mention his misplaced punishment, so the least he could do was let the blond relax in his lap as he massaged those aching body parts for him while they soaked. But Akihito warned the dark haired man that if he even TRIED to grab his ass, he’d have to kick his and then drown him. Both Alphas agreed that that seemed totally fair.

 

 


	11. I Fear Rivers Overflowing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Our little Aki spends the night at Asami's penthouse, where he was given a rather rude awakening. Meanwhile, back at the Sion compound, chaos doesn't "rain" there, it pours...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is dedicated to the infamous fanfic3112, who felt free to remind me that it had been some time since there was an update to this story. So here's to you, my dear crazy hat lady, our patron saint of abandoned fics and juicy smut.

Initially, it was an earth tremor was what woke him up. Nothing major, probably a 4.0 or less in magnitude. At his place in the Sion compound, he probably would have slept right through it. But, it was his first night in a strange place, so maybe that’s why he even registered it. Or, possibly because he was in the penthouse of a very tall building. Perhaps it was because he knew he was sleeping next to a Big Bad Wolf who liked to eat up little boys. Well, next to the wolf’s den, anyways.

Two men bathing together? Big deal, it’s Japan. Bathing together, and him a little bit tipsy? Again, it’s Japan. But sitting in that warm, relaxing bath, on top of all that smooth skin and firm muscle? Ugh. Too tempting. Especially with those nuzzles and teasing kisses and soft touches, and that deep voice murmuring to him, trying to coax him into sharing his bed for the night, “just to sleep”. Gods, that man was a total rush wrapped up in sex pheromones, topped off with a complete package that made his balls ache. And that just wasn’t fair.

Aki pouted when he cracked an eyelid and fumbled around for his watch, just to see he was right: it was “too damn early for this shit” in the morning. Dropping his watch back on the night stand, he flung his arm around himself as he turned over and snuggled back into the comfiest pillows and comforter he had ever met. Drifting off, he was rudely dragged back to consciousness by gentle tapping at the door. Grumbling several rude things, none of which sounded even remotely like “come in”, he growled when Mr. Tall, Dark, and Obnoxiously Handsome opened the door slightly to ask if he was all right. “Yes, Mommy, I’m fine. I usually don’t wake up for anything less than a 5.5 on the Richter Scale. And don’t bother starting;  I didn’t have any grown ups to climb into bed with when I was younger, so I’m not gonna start now.” The chuckle on the other side of the door just proved he was right in his suspicions.

Just as the door was closing, he pushed himself up slightly and asked out of curiosity. “Hey, Asami? Why doesn’t this guest room door have a privacy lock on it?”

“Well, my curious little kitten, I could say that the only people I have here are people I trust, but it’s really just to save on repair costs.”

“Repair costs?”

“Yes. If I really wanted in that room with you, I wouldn’t bother about whether the door was locked or not. I’d just come through the wall.”

Saying that, he closed the door. ‘Damn, being around that man’s like waiting in line for one my favourite amusement park rides. I wonder what kind of g-force his “ride” can generate?’ With that appealing thought in mind, the blond drifted off back to sleep.

Just to be woken up some time later by an aftershock. So. ANNOYING. Stretching, yawning, and enjoying a leisurely scratch in ways only a male truly can, he heard movement down the hall. Deciding he wanted breakfast and to start getting his daily dose of vitamin A-sami right then, he reluctantly abandoned the warm embrace of his comforter and promised his pillows that if they’d just wait for him, he’d come back to them soon. Giving his ass one last scratch for good measure, he winced when he touched a tender spot. Going over to the full length mirror, he turned and gingerly pulled his underwear down to check out the damage. The red marks and hand-shaped bruises looked brutal, and it wasn’t exactly accompanied by a pleasant tingling sensation, either. Hissing through his teeth, he gently slid his undies back up, then pulled his jeans on. Not thrilled with putting his used socks back on, he went barefoot as he retrieved the shirt he liberated yesterday from the locker, reasoning it was probably less stinky than the t-shirt he’d sweated in. Rolling up the cuffs over his elbows, the boy headed out of his room and sniffed his way to the kitchen. Where he was confronted by the sight the big man, wrapped in a thick, comfy-looking bath robe, chest bared, checking his phone as he held his cup of espresso. Golden eyes glanced up through dark bangs as a gravelly morning voice greeted his arrival. Pointing Aki to the espresso maker, he invited him to help himself, or offered him tea if that was his preference. A request for juice was met with a chin jerk indicating where the fridge was.

Predator eyes followed the boy around the kitchen, imagining him in one of his own used shirts and nothing else, his scent surrounding that body he’d held last night. Then he thought of that blond bed head laying on his chest, sweaty and mussed from being in the throes of pleasure in his bed… Snapping back to the present as Akihito asked what was for breakfast, Asami told him they could order in whatever he felt like. Looking at the tall man like there was something not quite right with him, the boy took a sip of his juice and asked if he didn’t have any food here he could whip up. Asami shrugged, and told him that there was food sent here for when Kirishima and Suoh came over for really late or very early meetings before business started for the day; the men took turns preparing the meals so they could continue talking without interruption. Huffing, Akihito set his glass down and stuck his head in the fridge, and emerged with some eggs, butter, milk and miracle of miracles, fresh garlic chives. Giving directions to where the frying pans, knives, spoons, plates and soya sauce lived, Asami watched as their boy washed and diced the chives, then heated them in the pan with some butter, stirring them about as he chatted away about looking forward to going back to the compound to get into some fresh clothes and getting the pants and shirt cleaned and back to their owner. Asami put his phone down and casually asked if the boy wanted to do some shopping for clothes and other supplies to keep there. The boy gave him a speculative look as he whipped the eggs up and poured them over the veggies in the frying pan. Asami waited for a moment or two, then asked with a grin “What, no comment?” Adding the milk and blending it into the eggs, he located the bread and put some slices in the toaster before he answered.

“Give me a second to flip this omelette, then I’ll get back to you. And… tah dah. Now we’re having scrambled eggs.” That got a laugh out of both of the Alphas. Neither one wanted the boy to leave; both began debating the pros and cons of not letting their future mate depart at all, rather just have some clothes and supplies gathered from his apartment at the compound until they could shop for new ones. But confining him wouldn’t bring him any closer to them, it would just make him want to escape and run, possibly injuring himself in the process. And while hunting him would be thrilling, they wouldn’t ever want him to come to fear them. Other Alphas might rely on control that way, but not them.

‘ _We need to tell him about us and our pack. Sooner, rather then later.’_

_‘Mmm. We don’t want too many firsts to overwhelm him though. How do we go about telling him without him running out into traffic, screaming?’_

_‘Well, Baka, I think it’s the same way we’ll end up introducing sex to a virgin: there’s no substitute for experience.’_

_‘And what do you think you’re going to do, Mutt? Force a change and hump him doggie style? Oh, that’s a lovely image. A horny, shaggy, slavering wolf ravaging his ass. He should take that about as calmly as the first time you spoke to him on the roof. Then how are you going to keep him calm and comfortable while you’re knotted in him so that neither one of you gets hurt? I somehow doubt being raped by a flea-ridden throw rug is one of his secret fantasies. When we mark him as ours, we have to be of one mind, and he needs to be prepared and willingly accept it, or we will lose him. We both know about those humans, mated and marked without understanding what it meant. Insanity, depression, running away, suicide or giving up their will to live and just wasting away. If we prepare him and he rejects us, at least then we’ll have the rest of his life to convince him to change his mind and become ours.’_

_‘I know, I know. It’s just so hard waiting for him. I could’ve sworn we had him ready and willing last night. Since we starting having sex, we’ve just taken what we wanted then left it behind. We’ve never had to try to PERSUADE anyone to let us share pleasure with them before. Usually, they cling to us like burrs in the short fur.’_

_‘I get it. So, we’ll wait until after the meeting, let Suoh and Kirishima know we’re to start teaching our Akihito and his friends the ways of our pack and what joining us will mean.’_

_‘Fine. For an Upright, you’re not as dumb as you look when you’re standing there, dick in hand, taking a piss.’_

_'Oh, and you’re so elegant and refined, all hunched up and squatting with your legs tucked in as you take a dump, furball.’_

_‘Shut it, Baka.’_  They both shut it as the blond plated their breakfasts and took them to the dining room table. Asami picked up his Akihito's glass, refilled it and took it along with another espresso to the table and sat. He got comfortably seated and looked at the boy questioningly, standing there, holding his plate. The boy frowned. “What? I’m sore and I don’t think it’ll be too comfy sitting on that chair.”

Asami pushed his own chair back and held out his hand. “Come here.” Aki frowned further, but came over. Asami took his plate and set it on the table after pushing his own aside to make room. Then he took the blond's hand, pulled him in closer, tilted his head back and offered his boy a kiss. He partially slitted his eyes as Akihito hesitated for a second, then leaned in and brushed their lips together before softly placing his against the bigger man’s and closed his eyes, putting his arms around his neck. Sighing inwardly, Asami pulled Akihito closer still, and manoeuvred him around, pulling him up and seating him across his thighs, then did something he’d never once done before: he closed his eyes shut as he deepened their kiss.

Just in time for another aftershock. The kiss broke with sighs, as both males rested their foreheads together, looking into each other’s eyes. Aki turned at the waist to reach for his spoon before the eggs got cold.

“You know, mega rich people like you have weird ways of doing things.”

“Oh? Like what?”

“Well, like getting up in the morning. Most normal people have alarm clocks that work just fine. But not you. You have to have tectonic plates shifting to get your ass up.” The dark haired man arched an eyebrow at that.

“My apologies. What time would you prefer to get up; I’ll have Kirishima adjust the earthquake schedule. Just for you.”

“Jackass.”

 

+++++

 

“For fuck’s sakes, Godzilla! Why don’t you go back to the Toho Building and stop trying to squash everything in your path.” Suoh looked up from his phone messages in time to see the smallest of the trio of stray humans the boss brought here dart down in front of him and scoop up a wayward pup. He looked the young man over and frowned. Didn’t he usually hang around that blond kid or Takato like they shared a kidney or something? Come to think of it, this was the first time this one even talked to him.

“Listen, I’ve got this compound’s security to worry about, plus Sion headquarters and personnel to manage, and all of our subsidiaries all over Japan to think about. Can’t you keep control of your runaways and let me do my damn job?!”

The kid’s chin came up and he glared at the giant in front of him as he tried to calm the whimpering pup in his arms. “Big deal. I somehow doubt your crybabies are as wired and pissing themselves like these preschoolers and their pups are. Right now, I’ve got a kid over there, newly arrived not two days ago, crying for his parents in the city, totally convinced this puppy here is his little sister and you were either going to flatten it or kick it and break something. Tell you what, big guy: I’ll take your damage reports and casualty lists, and you can clean up all the snotty faces, crapped pants and dog piss on the floor.” Saying that, the boy turned around and went back to the young boy sniffling off to the side. He then knelt down in front of the child and put an arm around him, comforting him before handing him the wiggling puppy and leading him away.

Suoh shook his head as a few of his men made suspicious noises behind him. First Asami had a full blown shit-fit about the blond kid’s escapades yesterday, then the earthquake and the aftershocks, and now Takato’s pet mouse roars at him. Can this day just get any better…

Later that evening, Suoh got a message from Kei, asking him if he was free to see some visitors. Suoh grumbled as he messaged back that he could make time for a quick visit, then straightened his desk up. Standing up as he heard a knock on his door, he had to struggle not to glower when in walked Kei, followed by an unhappy Takato and the Mouse. Just perfect. Instead of politely greeting the group, he just nodded at Kei and took his seat, waiting for the inevitable bitch fest he knew was coming with those two. Without waiting for Asami’s Administrative Assistant to start with an explanation, the taller boy put his shoulders back and curled his hands into fists as he stepped forward and started in with: “I heard there was a problem today…”

“Hold on, Takato. That was all on me. The kids were in panic mode all day, a new transfer had a meltdown, and freaked when his puppy took off after another aftershock. He went bailing after it and I went after them. The pup got in Suoh-san’s way while he was distracted with his job. I grabbed the dog, then took a strip of the poor guy’s ass for breathing the wrong way.” Turning to bow to the big man, Kou sounded tired and stressed as he apologized. “Suoh-san, I’m sorry for being such a jerk. We were just starting to teach the kids that they can trust the security team members to help look after them when their parents or family members aren’t around, and then I have to go ruin it by yelling at you in front of one of the kids. I probably threw you off whatever you were doing, and I’m really sorry if I made your work harder.”

Suoh sat there for a moment, not quite sure what to do. Usually when someone interfered with Sion business, an apology just didn’t cut it. Catching something that suspiciously looked like a grin that Kei covered up by pushing up his glasses with his index finger, he mentally shrugged and accepted the apology in the spirit that it was given. Assuming the meeting was now over, he glanced at a mollified Takato before getting ready to wish the couple a good night with a sour taste in his mouth when Kei once again spoke up. “If you don’t mind, I wanted a bit more information about the request for a partial day off in the city for the two of you and Takaba-kun before I send it off to Asami-sama.”

Takato shrugged. “Sure. No matter what, we get together on the anniversary of Kou here joining us at the orphanage. We usually start by going to Kanda Myojin Shrine to give thanks for still being a family, pray for success with our jobs and luck to keep Aki alive for another year, and to see if we can talk some sympathetic kami into helping us find our significant others in the upcoming year.” Suoh sat back, listening more intently. “Then we go out for a meal together, usually at a ramen shop since that’s what we can afford. Then we go clubbing, have a few drinks, dance the night away and see if our prayers were answered by trying to pick up some dates.”

Kou snorted. “And every year, we head home alone, so what does that tell ya.” As the boys chuckled, Suoh needed clarification on a personal point of interest.

“Pardon me, but did you say you went out looking for dates? Aren’t you two… involved?”

Takato rolled his eyes as Kou groaned. “Why do people keep saying that!? It’s not like he’s got sole custody of our communal brain or something.”

“I’ve said it before, Kou. We spend too damn much time all together. If anyone ever was interested in one of us, they’d get scared off, thinking we were part of a package deal and they’d have to have sex with all of us at the same time.” Turning to look at Suoh, he smirked and commented “I’m actually kinda surprised your boss hasn’t bailed on Aki yet. Or, is he not the type to be intimidated by the thought of group sex?”

Kirishima covered his mouth with a loose fist as it was Suoh’s turn to roll his eyes. “Why would he? There’s only three of you.” he observed, rather dryly. Kei’s eyes were screwed closed as his shoulders silently shook. Takato was surprised into a bark of laughter while the other boy shook his head and grinned. He gave the big man behind the desk a smile as he relaxed.

“Wow, dude, T.M.I. Anyhow, no, we’re not a couple. It’d be too much of a pain to try and find a ladder every time I wanted a piece of his ass.”

“Whatever, runt. I’d probably break YOUR scrawny ass without even breathing hard.”

“You and what pack of batteries, dim bulb?” The insults and jibes continued while Kazumi and Kei shared an amused look. These two sounded as bad as they did when they were the same age, without a pack to call their own, before they met Asami and took on the responsibilities of helping him build his empire. Maybe that crazy blond was good for their friend and leader, helping him feel like he was sharing in a bit of the boy’s youth that he had missed out of his own. By the time the boys had wrapped it up, both of them sniggering hard enough Kou was turning red, both men had decided to recommend to their boss to let the boys have their day out while utilizing one of the more highly trained surveillance teams in Sion’s employ to allow the boys to have their space while keeping them safe. Neither man would be surprised if Asami-sama insisted that the boys have the use of one of the company’s cars with driver, then dinner at one of the Sion Group’s fine dining establishments before “comping” the boys VIP status at one of his clubs. Very likely, they’d get new outfits out of their day too. They both new their Alphas were nothing if not generous once given the chance.

Just then, a call tune sounded and Kou apologized again as he took out his phone, saying it was from Aki. He read it, then showed it to Takato, both of them raising their eyebrows. Turning to the other men in the room, Kou asked if they knew where Aki was right now. Suoh shrugged again and said that he had business in the city last night and had spent the night there. The boys gave each other another look and Kou started reading the message out loud: ‘spent the night in Tokyo at a swanky place, the quake was my morning wake up call. It’s pretty high up here; we could see some of the nearby building sway in the aftershocks’. “We?” Both boys looked at the men expectantly.

Kirishima went ahead and took one for Team Sion. “I understand that once Takaba-kun’s business was done, Asami-sama insisted that he order in supper for both of them at his apartment, they had a drink, then he put him in one of his guest rooms for the night.” Kou did a highly dramatic rendition of a swoon while Takato shook his head with an admiring smile, muttering “smooooth”. Kou cocked his head to the side with a mischievous look. “Guys, what kind of a douche would I be if I asked Aki when Asami-san kissed him, did he feel the earth move?” A pair of snickers registered approval as Takato high fived his bro.

“Why, only the best kind, my dear sir.” Kou smirked as he got busy texting. As soon as he announced the message had been sent, Kirishima had a request to forward a text through Aki’s phone to his boss. The gist of the text was to remind Asami that he had paperwork he needed to deal with before the big meeting coming up, so no “goodies” until all his homework was done. Once that was sent off, three heads turned expectantly to the Sion security team leader. He just wondered if he could send a query to see if the kid needed anything dropped off at the penthouse for their sleepover, like his Pokémon pajamas and slippers, his safety blankie or his stuffed panda bear…? Snorts and chuckles greeted that one, and several minutes went by as they all awaited a reply. As soon as the call tune sounded, Kou eagerly opened it and started reading out loud: 'are you guys done? You’re sure? Fine, first off, tell the big ape to keep out of my bedroom.  Second of all, and this comes from the bottom of both our hearts, you guys are all a bunch of dicks.”


	12. There's a Bad Moon on the Rise

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A bit of Akihito's past catches up with him, and the jealous Alphas aren't going to let it slide.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "Writing is not necessarily something to be ashamed of, but do it in private and wash your hands afterwards." Robert A. Heinlein
> 
> Holy hell, people. Four. Weeks. Four weeks I've been pushing and pulling and clawing to get this chapter posted, and I gave it one more read through last night, and another five pages come out of nowhere. And that hurt. WTF. 
> 
> I'm sorry it's taken so long, but between tests, exams, course projects, my hubby, the van, my other co-authored story, my plants and trolling all my buddies on here online, the only one not ready for a breakdown is the cat. What does that tell you. Iluvmyterrier's been working overtime nights, and has been too busy remembering to breathe to even think about this recently, so you'll be stuck with my sorry excuse of an ass to keep this going for a little while.
> 
> Thanks for not giving up on us.
> 
> \----------------------------------

 

Asami sipped his whiskey as he studied the youth and his companion sitting across from him in the informal visitors seating area within his office. Tao had physically matured since their last visit, and looked to be about twenty in human years. From his own and his wolf’s memories, the boy had his father’s looks, softened by his mother’s eyes and easy smile. He had only been a couple of years old when both Fei Long and Yoh had been sent by their “father” to get the boy out of Vietnam at his parents’ request. After his mate had passed away, Master Liu hadn’t looked for a new one, instead raising their only surviving pup and adopting the heirs of fallen comrades and allies as his own.

For now, Fei Long managed Hong Kong and Macau along with Yoh's territory of Taiwan while Yoh was away, acting as the boy's advisor and general, helping Tao rebuild his bio family's territory in and around Hanoi. It must be hard work, as it had been laid to waste decades earlier thanks to Marcus’ meddling in local affairs, then left stripped bare and abandoned. That the young man would be willing to risk fighting on two fronts just to pay back the bastard that ruined his family legacy spoke volumes about him in Asami’s estimation. Sending more people and resources to help him rebuild operations now would be a worthwhile business investment for the future.

Tao and Yoh had been at Sion headquarters since mid day, working out the logistics for their joining forces with Fei Long, Arbatov and Asami against Marcus and his bunch. It looked like they wanted to get everything nailed down tonight, then relax and visit with him tomorrow before they returned home to China. Asami only minded as this meant he wouldn’t get to see his boy. Akihito had gone back to his place to pack some things to leave at the penthouse and make a shopping list of what all he’d need to pick up if he stayed with him in the city. Mentally shrugging, he lit up a cigarette and mentioned to Kei in passing to let the blond know that he'd be working late tonight, so he won't be coming over. Yoh and Tao may have been relaxed in the territory of their friend and business partner, but the pair were nevertheless always alert, and both of their ears pricked up at the casual mention of a certain name.  “Akihito, huh? We know a photographer here in Tokyo named Akihito. He works in the crime section for one of the papers. Haven’t heard from him in a while now; have you?” he asked, glancing at his big brother. Yoh exhaled some smoke and shook his head no.

Asami closed his eyes for a moment as a certain suddenly possessive wolf in his head curled his upper lip back, showing teeth. ‘ _Oh, a tabloid crime photographer named Akihito, you say? In Tokyo? The kind that, even if he isn’t looking for trouble, it still finds him, that Akihito? Nope, never heard of him. Move along.’_ Asami sighed again. Really?  “In the past few months, I’ve become… acquainted… with someone like that, around the time I had the meeting with Marcus. By the name of Takaba Akihito.”

Tao and Yoh shared a look, then the young man pulled out his phone, called up his photo gallery and showed the screen to their host. “This guy?" he asked a bit cautiously, showing a pic that was a few years old but undoubtedly the same mop of hair and that same “whatcha gonna do about it?” grin he knew so well he almost smiled just seeing it’s image, which both visitors noticed.

Tao laughed while Yoh’s usually serious face almost twitched into a momentary smile. "Well then! Why not invite him over for a late meal and a drink so we can all visit! He still loves sushi and beer, right?" The young man asked as he started texting orders to his men, taking up his host’s earlier invitation to make himself at home. Before Asami and Kirishima realized what was happening, Tao had ordered food from several local places he knew were good and sent some men to pick them up, directed a squad of others on where to go for a beer run and what to pick up, and sent a selfie of he and Yoh with a less than thrilled yakuza drinking in the background. In less time than one would think, Aki phoned him back and the two were laughing and talking like old friends while Asami nodded permission for Kirishima to have the blond picked up and brought to Sion as Suoh juggled the arrival of food, beer and the clearance of strangers into the secure building.

It seemed to take forever for their friend to show up, and Tao decided to take matters into his own hands by claiming that he knew of one sure-fire way to make the blond appear as he opened a container of dim sum, snagged one of the dumplings with a plastic fork, dipped it into the spicy sauce and was just about to take a bite of it when a hand magically materialized beside his head, snatched the fork out of his grip while a finger flicked the boy’s opposite ear as the appetizer was popped into a smug mouth. Turning around in surprise, Tao didn’t see anyone leaning over him, and turned forward just in time to see another dumpling get speared from his other side. This time he turned fast enough and caught sight of twinkling blue eyes as the second mouthful followed its predecessor into the bottomless pit of Aki’s stomach. Both boys ended up spending the evening sitting together on the couch, stuffing their faces, drinking beer, talking shit and catching up, while Yoh retreated to the chair at the end of the table, closer to Asami and Kirishima, possibly for fear of losing a finger if he dared to get between the food and the youngest pair.  Meanwhile, Asami and his wolf were burning a hole through the blond with their (barely contained jealousy) glare, bitchin' to each other about how their little mate had hardly even looked in their direction since he’d arrived. They were only somewhat mollified when Tao excused himself for a few minutes, and their boy came over and curled up beside them on the couch, slightly flushed but feeling happy from all the good food and alcohol in his system.

Finally, (from Asami and company’s perspective, at least), Yoh and Tao were saying their good-byes, getting ready to leave for the night. Yoh was reviewing plans for a business brunch in the morning while Tao gave Akihito a bear hug, then stopped with one arm still around Aki, and leaned in for a closer sniff of his neck. He asked in a stage whisper "Are you with Ryuichi? You don't have his scent mixed in with yours, but I can smell his on you...” He then perked up and asked brightly (and a little loudly)“Hey, did he bite you yet? What’s your mark like? Let me see!” Poor Akihito had no idea what was being asked, and did a great imitation of an owl, huge eyes blinking away at his pal. Asami's warning growl might not have been heard beyond the closed office doors in the hallway, but it was a close thing. The older man had had enough of the festivities, and seemed ready to rip Tao's arm off and beat him with the wet end, while Kei wearily removed his glasses and rubbed the bridge of his nose, thinking “there isn’t a big enough bonus to put up with this". Ever the conscientious one, Yoh was acutely aware of the ambient temperature in the room swiftly dropping, so he grabbed Tao by the scruff and beat a hasty retreat, wishing everyone a good night on their way out the door. Poor Aki was left sitting there on the couch, all big eyes and partially intoxicated confusion as Asami gritted out to Kei that they were ready to leave NOW, so if anyone needed to reach them, they'd be at the penthouse. He then strode over to Aki and without any hint picked the boy up and threw him over his shoulder in one smooth motion and stalked out of the office with nary a squawk.

On the way down to the parking level, Asami didn’t relinquish his hold on his boy, as if worried that if he lost bodily contact, Akihito might somehow levitate up to the ceiling of the elevator car and escape through the emergency access hatch up there. Once they were near the basement level, Asami shifted his bundle to get easier access to his pack of Dunhills in his inside jacket pocket and shook one out, letting it loosely dangle from his lips while he put his cigarettes away and fished out his lighter. All that jostling about was stirring Aki up, and he had just taken a deep breath to let the big man carrying him know just what was on his mind when he was suddenly slid off the muscled shoulder and swung about to be tossed in head first from the limo door onto the back seat. He was still bouncing as Asami made sure that the passenger doors were locked before getting in himself. As soon as he sat down, the door was shut behind him, and the vehicle pulled away.

Akihito scrambled to sit right side up and glared at the larger man beside him, moodily smoking away. “Asami, what the hell!” was all he managed to get out before the person in question tamped out the cigarette butt, calmly unbuttoned his suit jacket, then turned towards the boy, put his hands snuggly around a slender waist and hauled a flailing, cursing, hissing blond onto his lap and kissed him ‘til he was compliant, probably from the lack of oxygen to his brain. Finally letting his hostage come up for air, he judged by the dazed look it was safe to proceed, and lifted his intended’s chin up to look him square in the eye as he asked “And why didn’t you tell me you knew members of the Hong Kong Triad?”

The blond blinked up at him as his brain cells rebooted and frowned. “Members? Uh, those two are part of the elite of the Baishe clan, younger brothers to the boss. Why, you got a problem with them?” he demanded, getting ready to struggle his way out of his captor’s lap.

“Yoh? No. Tao; I haven decided yet. I’ve known all the Liu family members since I was old enough to go on visits with my parents. My father and Master Liu were friends from long time back. As a courtesy, I tried to maintain business ties with the eldest son after he started taking charge of the clan when his father took ill. The fool didn’t have a head for business, or any common sense to speak of. After Yan-Tzu murdered his father and took over the Baishe for himself, Fei Long, the second eldest, stepped in with the support of his younger brothers and a majority of the clan members and took it all away from the back-stabbing bitch. When Yan-Tzu fled, I offered to find the prick and bring him and his bunch back, just their balls or their heads, out of respect for Master Liu. All three agree that they wanted the heads returned with their balls stuffed in their mouths. But, this isn’t answering my question: how is it that you know any of them?”

Akihito scowled, feeling like he was being unjustly accused of something, and crossed his arms in a huff over his chest. “Same way we met; through work.” Seeing the dark eyebrow raise, he continued rather grumpily. “Don’t give me that look. It’s not like I hung out in seedy back alleys, looking to pick up easy drug kingpins and crime lords looking for a good time. Listen, a few years back, just when I was getting started doing freelance photos for the newspaper, I was covering a night shift for someone when a tip came in about a deal going down in one of the waterfront warehouse districts involving Chinese gang members. I got down there and had just settled into a nice hiding spot when two different groups of vehicles arrived at the same time. Yoh was there doing business, and Tao had came along with their guards as an observer of sorts. I got pics of the deal going down, concentrating on the local guys. The meeting broke up, and both parties started back to their cars when out of nowhere a guy steps out from between some cargo boxes, clocked Tao across the jaw with his gun, and nabbed him as he shot the guards closest to them. He started hauling Tao away while the other local guys turned on Yoh and his men and started firing. And, well, you know me. I couldn’t just sit there as some kid was got suckered and dragged off while his bunch were pinned down and unable to help, so I left my camera and stuff and did something about it.”

“You mean you stuck your nose in where it didn’t belong, right in the middle of a shootout between yakuza and Triad members” Asami replied dryly. As hard as it was to believe, by now it really didn’t surprise him. Akihito just shrugged.

“Not really. I mean, the shooting was off in one direction while the creep that had Tao in a choke hold was pulling him off in another direction. I just stuck to the top of the shipping containers above them and kept pace until I saw them get close to a stack of smaller crates on top of the one I was on. I stayed low and got ahead of them, and when they were almost below me, I yelled. Tao broke away and took off like his ass was on fire and his hair was catching, I pushed a couple of the boxes over, dickwad got clobbered, and I took the long way back to pick up my stuff. What was left of the home team had high-tailed it out of there and Tao was safely back with his people. The Chinese had more backup by now, and no one was going anywhere. I waited a bit to see if they’d leave, but when some of the armed guards started looking around up near where my hiding spot was, I made my way down to ground level and, uh, “creatively” approached the lead car, stuck my head in the back window and asked Yoh if the kid was alright. I guess that and my letting them go through and delete some of the photos without too much fuss must’ve made an impression. Yoh let me go with a thank you, I traded numbers with Tao, I got paid extra for the photos as the morning edition’s exclusive lead story, and the Big Three of Baishe owed me one. All in all, it was one of my better nights.”

Asami and wolf grudgingly accepted the story, but still felt rather bitchy about the impromptu reunion party thrown in the office without so much as a “by your leave”. Plus, they remembered hearing about that little adventure back then, and wondered what they’d missed out on since they hadn’t looked into the photographer when they’d had the chance. The boy and they would have been mated by now. Certainly, so many nights together missed out on… “So, knowing who I am, you still didn’t mention having ties to the Asian underground, even though it might possibly have caused some problems?”

Akihito gave him a look as he raised his chin defiantly. “Right now, just knowing who you are, I wouldn’t say shit if my mouth was full of it. If this is the attitude I get about mutual acquaintances, I don’t wanna deal with you and any enemies I might know.” Asami’s scowl wasn’t nearly enough of a warning to make him back down. As the limo pulled up in front of the apartment building and Suoh stood outside waiting for the passenger doors to be unlocked, the blond opened his big mouth, the earlier beers making him feel as big as the head of security outside and bulletproof to boot. Addressing the large back leaving the car, the boy loudly proclaimed “Besides which, just on principle I wouldn’t tell you about who all I know. The way you’re acting right now is about as delightful as an itchy arsehole.” Whether it was the boy’s lip, or the way he stressed the “arse” in “arsehole”, the Alphas’ last frayed nerve snapped. Reaching back into the limo and grabbing hold of the boy’s shirt, he hauled him out and tucked him under one arm, carrying the thrashing, swearing youth with no more mind than if he was a bag of laundry having a temper tantrum. The imposing figure went up the steps, through the front door of the lobby and into another elevator, cool as a cucumber. Suoh kept his face blank and hadn’t said a word, holding his bow until he was sure the elevator doors had closed before he pulled out his phone and started to text, grinning like a ‘possum. Wait until Kei heard about this one.

Meanwhile, the blond was feeling the first tinge of motion sickness from moving along laterally about four feet off the floor. The ride stopped for a quick intermission while the penthouse door was unlocked and shoes were toed off before it resumed. He could tell they were bypassing both the living room and the kitchen, and figured Asami was going to throw him into the shower stall to cool off, or toss him on his bed to sleep it off. He was starting to feel sleepy, so he was prepared to accept either fate with just a grumble or two. What he didn’t count on was going straight into the master bedroom and getting a flying toss onto the bed while the door was locked behind them! He was still sputtering and bouncing on the mattress when his shirt was roughly pulled off and Asami’s tie made its way securely around his wrists yet again within the same forty-eight hour time span before the end was tied off on the headboard. Making sure their boy wasn’t going anywhere, the Alphas then strolled over to the high-backed chair near the opposite wall, hung his suit jacket over the back as he loosened up the collar and rolled up his shirt sleeves. Looking back at the bare-chested boy laying on his bed, wiggling around, trying to pull out of his restraint gave both Alphas a rather dark feeling of satisfaction.

Slowly moving back towards the huge bed, Asami and wolf were wearing equally evil smiles, like they had been out all day on a fruitless hunt, just to stumble on someone else’s kill on their way home. As he reached the side of the bed his little blond was on, Akihito was too wrapped up in pulling himself higher up the bed so he could use his teeth to work on getting that tie loosened. He didn’t notice the older man pass by him on the way to his bedside table, much like a swimmer wouldn’t notice the slight current against his leg stirred up by the Great White swimming beneath him. He did shriek just about as loudly, though, when Asami surprised him by grabbing hold of an ankle and yanking him back down the mattress again.

“Now, listen to me, kitten,” he started out, heading off Akihito’s no-doubt lengthy litany of indignation for being in the position he was in. “I’ve known Tao for a long time, and I know he probably didn’t mean to, but that boy got too up close and personal with you tonight, and I’m of a mind to make sure you don’t forget which man you belong to.” So saying, he began to run his fingers over Aki’s chest and collarbone, leaving a small stripe of lubricant on the underside of his arm. Massaging, teasing, trailing his fingertips over exposed shoulders and up the sides of his blond’s neck, he kept an eye on that test patch of skin, just to make sure his boy didn’t have an allergic reaction that would make all his plans for the evening come to a grinding halt. After about thirty-odd minutes without any problems, he deemed it was fine to proceed. So, proceed he would.

Releasing the ear lobe he’d been nibbling, he moved on to start leaving little love bites down the length of his soon-to-be mate’s neck. Mmmmm, just the thought of being his kitten’s first was arousing both Alpha’s possessive side, making him roll his blissfully moaning boy gently over onto his side before fitting his own body snuggly against that bared back and torso that begged to be licked and tasted. His fingers moved down those inviting sides, focusing on titillating rather than tickling (but still tucking away any spots that caused jerks, shivers or goosebumps for later exploration, nonetheless). Running his hands around to the front and then moving slightly upwards, he found one of the boy’s little pink nipples and started to roll it around between his fingertips. His Akihito gasped and jerked in his arms, bucking back into the bigger man. The ebony haired man chuckled as he nuzzled into the fairer strands and started to tease and torment both buds simultaneously. The blond whined as he tried to wiggle away, but stilled as Asami gently but firmly bit down on his shoulder as his fingers pinched and pulled, wanting his boy not to resist, but to just sink into what he was feeling. Akihito sobbed and strained, still trying to get away even as he was pushing up into Asami’s grasp. Finally going limp, he gasped and groaned as one hand left its tender nub and moved slowly downwards, savouring the feel of the smooth skin and the divot of the ticklish belly button along the way to the boy’s low cut jean waist. Akihito was squirming like a worm on a fishing trip, and Asami teased him further by brushing his fingers under the waistband of his briefs at random as he licked over the bared ribs.

“Dammit, stop being such a tease and lose the denim already.”

“Really, my sexy kitten? Are you willing to risk that with the mood I’m in?” he asked, slowly rolling his pelvis up into Aki’s ass. The blond scrunched his eyes up and sucked in some air before answering.

“Considering how the same evening you kidnapped and assaulted me, I spent the later part of it naked in your lap, lounging in a bath, the question of my jeans staying on seems kind of moot, yes?”

Asami chuckled, gently nudging his head with his resting chin. “So, is this what you think the American term ‘second base’ is?”

The blond huffed, wriggling his cheeks against the firm mound beneath him. “Second base? And here I thought I’d at least get an Aussie Kiss out of it.”

Both Alphas paused for a moment, Ryuichi frowning slightly at the unfamiliar term while his wolf cocked his head in curiosity. “And what exactly is an Aussie Kiss?” he queried suspiciously.

The boy grinned as he softly butted the chin above with his head. “It’s like a French Kiss, only ‘down under’”.  Asami snorted as he wrapped his arms around the boy and snickered as his fingers visited all of those ticklish spots he’d noted before. Akihito started laughing hysterically and went into full body convulsions, helpless to get away. When the bigger man finally relented, the boy was red faced and wheezing with tears in his eyes. Raising himself more into a sitting position, he looked down into that giggling face resting in his lap and felt happiness himself. The pair of Alphas hadn’t just had fun with a partner in forever.  Liaisons were simple fuck and run affairs, taking care of a need or a whim and leaving when he’d had enough of the other person. He’d rarely bothered to get names and numbers because he mostly didn’t want to see them again afterwards, and he knew the only name that would be screamed was his. That this boy had charmed them both so much without raising a single danger signal was unbelievable.

Asami gave him a rare soft smile and leaned over to kiss him on the tip of his nose. “Well, little boy, do you think you could handle that kind of kiss tonight?” Looking startled, Akihito gulped and blushed even harder.

“Um, I can’t believe I’m saying this, but all I want is to feel you touching me. I’m sure that would be more than enough for me to handle”, he admitted a bit shyly. At that second, Asami just wanted to give him everything he’d ever wanted, from the kitten he’d seen on the street as a toddler to the pony he’d wished for on his fifth birthday to whatever nice house with the sunset view of the beach was on the travel poster he’d glanced at on the way back to his dumpy little apartment that last night before they’d met. And then cover him in gold jewelry and gemstones in case all that wasn’t enough.

“As you wish,” he murmured, turning slightly to open the nearby drawer of the nightstand and selecting a different bottle of lube. He tucked that under a thigh so it’d warm up some and he’d know where it was when he wanted it. He then leaned over to kiss his Akihito as his hands wandered back down slowly to the jeans waistband. He unbutton the pants, then undid the zipper tooth by tooth and folded the open halves back, starting to push them down past the hips. They were right about mid thigh when he stopped and caressed the bare skin trapped between underwear and denim. The boy broke their kiss to move his legs a bit as he moaned quietly.

Then suddenly he tensed his abdominals as he pulled his hips up and back over himself, bent knees about chest height and feet just missing his partner’s head before pushing his hips up and out, his legs straightening and feet pointing as the offending denims flung off of his legs and sailed past the edge of the immense bed. Looking up at Asami, he gave him a mischievous look as he wiggled his toes and sighed “Ah, that’s much better.”

Taking that as his cue, Asami moved his hands up the thighs and put them on either side of the mound covered by the soon-to-be departed underpants, rubbing back and forth. Aki made little noises as he bucked his hips, and his teacher moved his hands under the band. As his hands moved forward against his skin, Aki arched his back and hips off the bed, letting the garment slide down over his hip bones, moving and twisting his legs until he kicked it off, baring himself.

Asami hummed his appreciation of the sight before him as he lazily cupped his boy’s balls in one hand as he ran his fingers lightly over the hardening appendage. Switching over to his fingertips, he lightly used his nails from the base up the underside, causing the blond to make some noises, and carefully ran it around the sensitive tip a time or two then down the top side, making Aki twitch and babble some more.

Lightly scratching the base as the blond flinched and moved with a gasp, he reached under the edge of his thigh for the lube and popped the lid open. Removing his other hand caused a disapproving little growl, making both Alphas smile and think of kittens even more. Lifting his hand up, he drizzled the special lube on his finger tips until it ran into his cupped palm. Clicking the lid shut, he put the bottle aside and concentrated on his boy as he loosely enclosed Aki’s cock with his fist. The blond gasped loudly and jumped with the contact, then moaned as he tried moving around within his grasp. His half closed eyes opened wide as he sucked in air, the tingling sensation of the lube beginning to take effect. Asami held his hand still, just tightening his grip slightly as Aki started moving faster, fucking himself up into his partner’s fist, crying out as the stimulation grew. Moving his other hand closer from kneading the boy's skin behind his balls, the older male caught some of the liquid that had slid down around the base on a finger and gently smeared it from the sensitive skin near his entrance up to the centre of his tightening sack. Aki whined and shuddered away from the unexpected touch then tossed his head back as the tingling registered on his nerve endings. His voice was hoarse by the time Asami took over, grasping him firmly as he started to twist his hand back and forth around his leaking member. Twisting his fist as it pumped faster up and down Aki’s length had the boy mewling before his tormentor leaned in closer, pursed his lips and blew on his sack. The sensations overwhelmed him as every muscle in his body tensed up hard, held for several seconds, then released, making him arch up, shuddering as he came in Asami’s hand.

Who were rumbling deep in their chests in enjoyment as they both watched their boy come undone. The Alphas waited as tremors of pleasure continued to rock his body for minutes afterwards, pleased they could make their precious little one feel such sensual delights. The wolf wondered if they could teach their mate the kind of hedonistic things they enjoyed indulging in so rarely, and they both agreed to give it their best try.

Akihito, in the meantime, was slowly recovering from being overwhelmed. He had no. fucking. idea. what having a partner could be like. That was. Amazing. Not since the first time he had tried touching himself had he felt anything like that. Holy hell, if having someone more experienced that was into you made THAT kind of difference, he’d kiss Asami’s ass and call him Senpai if they could do more stuff like this. It almost made him snicker when the fuzzy thought “Senpai noticed me!” wandered through his head. He sighed as he drifted along on his high. Yeah, he was totally dopey.

Turning his head a little as his breathing slowed, he could feel Asami’s hard-on rub the side of his head. Moving slightly, he nudged it gently, inhaling the man’s warm scent through the pants material. Mmm, that smell… Made him feel safe. Protected. Desired. He hummed softly as he drifted, rubbing into the muscular leg he was laying on. A big hand smoothed down his hair, soothing him.

Asami looked down at his boy, idly playing with his hair to help keep his mind off his own needs for the moment. Much as he doubted his boy would complain too bitterly if they were to go on from here, he wanted their first time to be more than just easing a case of “blue balls”. They’d start teaching all the boys right away and get them to accept pack life before turning them all at the right time. The sooner, the better.

Blissed out blue eyes cracked open enough to look up at his partner’s handsome face as he nudged his mound once more. “What’s with your package? Gonna wait ‘til Christmas to unwrap it?”

Asami shrugged then lazily stretched his shoulders back before twisting to undo the boy's binding. “I was just thinking of getting you cleaned up and tucked away before I took care of it.”

Aki tried to play it cool without giving too much away about his nerves as he brought up his great idea. “Why don’t you show me what you like, then we could shower after together. You know, conserve hot water and all that…” he finished kind of lamely. He’d chickened out part way through his half-assed, not-quite-a confession, turning his face aside so he wasn’t looking up at Asami as his words made the bigger man’s stomach twist with desire. Glancing back up nervously to see how his suggestion was being taken, he gasped as he saw the naked look of want on the man’s face. Quickly rolling over and getting up, he crawled up on his hands and knees between Asami’s thighs, stopping only when the dark haired man’s hands cupped his face as their lips crushed together. When they separated for air, both of them were hard. Aki backed away as Asami swung his leg around and got off the bed, walking over to his chest of drawers as he quickly unbuttoned his shirt. Discarding it, along with belt, socks and pants, he partially turned to open a drawer as Akihito whistled at the size of what was laying in wait in those boxer briefs. “Holy crap! What do you feed that thing?!”

Asami half shrugged good naturedly. “Depends on what it’s in the mood for, really. Lately, it’s been craving a blond…”

The boy looked up in mild awe and disbelief as the older man took something out of the drawer and came back towards the bed. Stopping a few feet away (ok, “out of grasping hands reach”), his face took on a sober look. “Akihito, I need to explain something, and I want you to listen, alright?” Once he had the boy’s undivided attention, he continued. “I’m sorry if I was rude with you earlier, but finding out you knew the younger Liu brothers was a bit of a shock, and when Tao got so familiar with you, it made me jealous and I reacted poorly. It’s fine if your friends get close to you, just not too close. You belong with me, and I will punish you if you encourage that kind of behaviour. Next time, with these.” Saying that, he held up a black leather strap attached to a ball gag. On either side of the gag was a thin metal chain attached to a dangling nipple clamp. Hanging off a finger was a matching thick black cock ring. As the boy sat there, stiff as a poker and open-mouth, Asami put aside the toys, discarded the final piece of clothing, and came towards the bed.

\----------

A contented Asami was settling into his work mode early next morning, a shadow of a smile daring to creep across his face every now and then. It was a quiet, trouble-free morning when he was rudely interrupted by his cell phone vibrating, letting him know the first call of the day was coming in. The caller I.D. showed it was from the head of the Baishe himself, Fei Long. Having the distinct feeling that his good mood was about to dissipate like a fart in a typhoon, he mentally prepared himself as he took the call. Sure enough, Fei-sama was his usual shit-disturbing self, saying he’d heard from Tao that Asami knew this Akihito he’d heard so much about. When Asami neither confirmed nor denied this piece of information, the Triad leader took matters into his own hands. He let it be known that he would take it as a personal favour if Asami could arrange for the young man to stop by the office for an introduction when he came to town for talks on joining the alliance against Marcus. He was purring as he lightly mentioned that if the boy was half as fine as the photos his little brother had sent him, he’d have to set up a private lunch date at his hotel suite for just the two of them, emphasizing that he wanted to “thank” him for saving his little brother, and maybe “reward” him personally. Asami growled as he hung up on his sometimes friend and always business rival, thinking dire thoughts a out one innocently sleeping, worn out boy, and those nipple clamps from last night.


	13. I'll Be Upon You by the Moonlight Side

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Asami and Fei Long are in America, combining business with pleasure as Akihito languishes in Tokyo all by his lonesome, and starts thinking too much.
> 
> Update: 666 kudos, people. Thanks bunches. What are the chances that this will summon Sebastian or Dante??? **drool**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> O. M. G. This is my third attempt to post this frickin' chapter suggested by Fanfic3112 last month. Fanny expressed surprise and mild disappointment that we hadn't posted something for the total solar eclipse at the end of August, especially considering the theme of our fic. Never mind that iluvmyterrier was still doing overtime overnights while getting ready for college in the next week; and I was writing my last first year exams, then taking a couple of days off before second year classes started up. But, I'd made a promise...
> 
> So, despite the fact that I lost this chapter not once, but twice before it could be posted and had to write it three times between everything else going on, I trudged on. May I tell you how much I began to despise all things to do with eclipses? And writing? At that point I'd failed an English grammar test so badly I was ready to walk away from college altogether in humiliation. Then Heth sent me a singing email of a song I LOATHE, and I was so pissed I got over 90% on the make up test next day.
> 
> ANYWAYS, here ya go Fanny. I now detest my iPad mini enough to want to bury it in the cat's litter box, and I hope you're happy.
> 
> "But I have promises to keep,  
> And miles to go before I sleep,  
> And miles to go before I sleep."

 

Asami was in a grumpy mood. Maybe he should have used reason instead of just giving in to his knee-jerk reaction. When Fei Long had teasingly asked if Akihito was coming with them as the in-flight entertainment, his jealous, territorial and possessive sides had all banded together to shut down his brain, shove his wolf aside and hijack his mouth long enough to say “no” without even thinking about it. After all the strings Kirishima and Kuroda had pulled to get the three boys’ passports issued on such short notice, he had just canceled the plans for their surprise trip, no synapses required. He was regretting it now. Every second in the air took him further and further away from his boy, and he could feel the distance like a physical barrier, a empty space inside him that just kept on expanding. His wolf, however, had taken it all rather calmly, considering. Just a half-assed rant as the plane was loaded and then taxied down the runway; once they were in the air, the wolf became preoccupied with other thoughts. Right now, the longer he were in the air, the more his mood improved. At this point, he might even be willing to forgive his human counterpart for ever considering being born. But the man wasn’t too worried about this change in attitude: from experience, he knew the mutt would return to normal all too soon.

Fei Long was still sulking back in the lounge area of the plane. Asami knew he’d pissed him off by first not introducing him to Akihito, then not bringing the blond and his friends with them. One would almost think he didn’t trust the Baishe around his boy. Fei, Yoh and he had grown up together, they’d gotten into all kinds of shit at one time or another, and they’d all covered for each other and Tao enough times that they were more like relatives than friends, and yet he was treating his compatriot like this. Why people put up with him and his wolf’s selfish whims, he had no clue; just please let Whatever was in Charge not let that change anytime soon.

Just as he finished that thought, his wolf popped up in his head, ears forward, tongue lolling out of the side of his mouth and golden eyes bright with growing excitement. _“I just realized, Baka, this’s going to be our last solo eclipse together! We weren’t even looking for a mate yet, and BAM!, our boy lands in our lap, all but gift wrapped. Mikhail’s right, you must’ve been a blacksmith in a past life and probably died from having a lucky horseshoe shoved up your ass.’_ Asami just rolled his eyes as he took a sip of his whiskey. Right now, he wasn’t sure if he preferred this wolf to his usually snarky one or not. _‘I heard that. Just think, Ryu: probably by the lunar eclipse in January, we’ll be mated. And we’ll both lavish our attention our mates and see to their every need and desire. I know this like I know we both have fur on our balls.’_

_‘Speak for yourself. I groom.’_

‘ _Manscaping, pfffft. I don’t get it. Hair’s there for a reason, but you insist on getting rid of it. Doesn’t the breeze bother your bare skin down there?’_

Asami put his head back against his headrest and screwed his eyes shut. _‘We are NOT having this conversation.’_

His wolf huffed. _‘You’ve just been jealous of me since you tried and failed miserably to lick yourself as a kid.’_ Asami saw his wolf give a quick flick of his tongue on his nose before he started laughing. _‘I tell you, though, I wouldn’t mind sneaking into the boy’s bedroom some night soon and licking him top to toenails, then front to back.’_

Asami frowned at that. _‘Isn’t that getting a little repetitive, Mutt? We’ve been over the whole “being raped by a hairball is bad”.’_

His wolf snorted. _‘All I’d have to do is wait for him to have a bit too much beer, then force a changewhile you’re in a deep sleep, slip onto his bed and give him a few good sloppy licks. If he woke up, he’d probably think he was dreaming about one of his cheesy horror movies. He’d most likely scratch me behind the ears and just go with it.’_

Asami was definitely not amused by that. _‘Try it, and I promise you, next total eclipse, I’ll have a muzzle and a strong harness and leash waiting for you. I’ll tie you to a tree and shave your ass bald. Then we’ll talk about bare balls in the breeze.’_

His wolf just grinned. _‘Oh yeah? You and what army._ ’ The wolf turned in a tight circle a couple of times, then flumped on his side onto the ground. But he stayed alert and excited, eyes and ears on the horizon as his tail started to slowly thump. _‘It’s coming soon, Ryuichi. Soon.’_ Whether his wolf meant the eclipse or bonding with their boy, the dark haired man wasn’t sure.

Several hours later, after landing at Portland International, Asami and Fei Long had made nice and were finishing a private meal together in Asami’s suite. The meal was as sumptuous as the room decor, not unexpected of a five star luxury hotel like The Nines. Unlike the formal written contract and the exchange of gifts between Mikhail and Asami, all Fei Long and he needed was to clink glasses together in a silent toast and to share a smoke on the balcony, enjoying the sun setting over the hilly landscape to seal the deal. Afterwards, Fei left to see what “local delicacies” he could find to sample for the evening down in the lounge while Asami decided to relax and take his leisure solo. Since he’d met Akihito, he’d found he liked to be challenged by his companion, and had found the idea of eager easy conquests wasn't all that appetizing any more. He was sure Kei and Kazumi were snickering with their wolves behind his back, but he found even the thought of upsetting his boy over a hypothetical one night stand… distasteful. Maybe he should just face it then: Asami, the Great and Powerful, Reigning Lord of All Tokyo and Its Suburbs (which is how he thought of the rest of Japan), had been domesticated by a little stray kitten.

 

After an early private flight from Portland to a small regional airport, they had boarded their chartered helicopter and flew over the huge traffic snarl lining this road into the national park. They were headed into an area of Crater Lake that had been reserved for them more than 24 months prior by the all-seeing, all-knowing Kirishima, who had not only tracked where the next total solar eclipse would be, but had also anticipated that the huge crowds would be directed elsewhere in the park, and had managed to secure a smallish open area for them to exclusively observe the celestial event. Because what was going to take place there wasn’t for outsiders.

Landing in a cordoned off area of a parking lot, Fel Long, Suoh and Asami, along with their guard detail, alighted from the ‘copter and looked around. Off to one side, about 100 metres away was the walkway leading to the park’s lodge hotel, ahead was the path leading down to the lake itself, and past the landing area was a platform overlooking the lake, the high cliffs surrounding what was the rim of an ancient collapsed volcano, and the small cone-shaped island just offshore.

Gesturing towards the lookout, Fei Long’s man preceded the pair, to be followed by Suoh acting as rear honour guard, followed by the majority of their security team. They had arrived just in time for the barest sliver of the Moon to start to slide over the Sun’s face as it cleared the eastern rim of the crater. Only the most powerful of Alphas and the oldest of Wolves with the strongest bonds could already feel the attachments dissolving, the Wolves starting to whine in their Alphas’ heads in eagerness. The whining increased with the gathering gloom as the Moon inched it’s way along. Just as the noise was starting to border on painful, the image of Asami’s wolf faded from within his mind and a faint, blurry outline started to take shape in the dimming light. Matching gold eyes caught and held each other’s gaze as the vague lupine shape solidified into a transparent black shadow, Fei Long’s slightly smaller ebony coloured Wolf starting to take shape moments later. As a full third of the Moon swallowed the Sun’s surface, both Asami and Fei Long’s Wolves became full and separate beings from their humans, and without a second look they both turned and raced each other for the tree line and slipped into the deeper shadows beneath.

Lighting one of his cigarettes, Asami looked over the mountain lake and its deep glacial blue waters in the waning light, and judged by the reflection of the eclipse on the surface that they had a good ninety plus minutes of autonomy before the eclipse was weak enough for their wolves to return inside them, so he waited until Suoh’s Wolf had departed before announcing he was going to take a dip in the lake. Suoh didn’t even flinch as a scandalized Baishe leader looked horrified. “In a cold meltwater mountain lake? With tourists all over the road on the northern rim up there? Naked?! You’ll both probably get arrested for inciting a riot or public indecency on federal lands or something.”

“I doubt very much anyone will have their binoculars trained on our “moons” in the lake when there’s something bigger going on in the sky.”

“Still,” Fei sniffed with distaste. “I think I’ll stay on land and go to a decent hot springs resort like a civilized person, thank you. Want me to watch you’re clothes for you?”

“Why, are they going to do tricks? Or do you think someone will come along and steal them, maybe hold them for ransom?” Asami grinned.

Suoh gave his friend and boss a sceptical look and enquired “You _have_ met out Wolves, right?”

All three laughed as Fei Long followed the men down to the shore line. He sat down at one of the outdoor tables provided and started his pipe as Ryuichi and Kazumi stripped out of their clothing behind one of the boathouses along the dock. Giving the men a few minutes to undress, he got up and sauntered over to the dock, leaning against the railing as he watched them walk over to a small sandy beach and start wading into the water. They made their way over to the dock and put their piles of folded clothes by the Triad leader’s shoes. “What, thought you’d sneak a peek?” Asami asked cheekily.

“Not really. I know that Suoh only feels truly naked without his gun, so I just wanted to see where he’d holster it while he was out skinny dipping.”

 

Meanwhile, Asami’s Wolf soon got bored and restless running through the forest along the crater’s walls, and let Suoh and Fei’s Wolves go ahead while he wandered aimlessly along a footpath to an outcropping of rock jutting out from the stone side. He went out onto it, looked over the lake, and felt bleakly alone. He had only met the boy’s spirit wolf a couple of times when the blond was in a deep sleep and had relaxed that part of his mind completely, but he was wishing the wolf was here, now, so he could share the sight with his little mate-to-be. Feeling lost and lonely for the first time in his human’s lifetime, the big Wolf sat and moped for a minute, then lifted his head and howled. A low, mournful sound started to rise over the stoney mountainside and filtered through the sparse pine trees down to the lake. When he stopped, he could hear a pair of faint voices answer from wherever they were, above him and a couple of kilometres away already. He looked at the reflection of the eclipse again and saw he still had another hour of just being with himself to endure, and didn’t like it. At. All.

Throwing his head back, he belled his heart out. It was pained, tired of the loneliness, hurting with the need to be with be with the one he had found. It rose and fell as the emotions swelled and ebbed in him, echoing off the sides of the extinct volcano and bouncing off the water until the area was full of sound; not like a pack of yapping coyotes, where five sound like ten and ten sound like twenty. It was just one long, bitter, howling sob, repeating itself over and over again even after he had stopped. As the last waves of echoes faded, he sighed and unhappily lay down, ears dejected, ready to put his head down on his front legs and pout when he heard a scrabbling noise coming from the path behind him. Swivelling his head to look around, he waited a moment or two until several uncertain steps where clearly identified as approaching his location. Not concerned in the least due to his size and his human-enhanced cunning, he kept watch with a mild interest, waiting to see if anything would show. A few more wary steps, and whatever it was stopped within the dark gloom under some nearby trees. He heard a tentative sniff, then a wuff of surprise. A white head emerged from the shadows and barked at him in delight, blue eyes bright and smiling. He was up and moving towards them before he even registered the scent. His mate was here! Somehow, someway, his mate was here. Twelve plus hours difference, eleven time zones away, the whole Pacific Ocean between them, but his mate was here. With him. Now.

Almost too late he skidded to a halt on the loose rocky soil, nearly bowling them both off their feet, but neither one cared. They were together, and glad of it. The white one whined and wiggled from the tip of the tail forward in sheer giddiness while the black behemoth gently rubbed their muzzles together then moved forward to lean against the pale shoulders beside him, partly closing his eyes as he lazily licked the other’s fur in satisfaction. He was content, just being here with his mate. Nuzzling into the pale fur, he drew in a deep breath then softly blew it out. Maybe his breath got underneath the snowy fur to tickle at the skin, because with a shiver his furry leaning post was off, tail up up, eyes curious, ears twitching back and forth before going nose to the ground, sniffing about. Watching the other Wolf’s movements as it cast about, taking in the scenery, Asami’s Wolf appreciated the way those svelte muscles moved under the sleek fur even as he wondered how his mate had come to be there with him. The artificial dusk was settling as he wondered aloud “How are you here?”

Then glancing quickly at the sky to see the last sliver of the Sun about to be consumed by the Moon, the black Wolf said “Come.”, and dashed off headlong done the mountainside, his ghostly white shadow keeping pace by his side. They dodged tree trunks and large rocks, loose sand and gravel scattering as they shifted directions with barely a paw in touch with the ground, tendons making minute adjustments mid stride before one or more legs even came down before pushing off again. Through some gaps in the tree cover ahead, they could see the lake, and made for the tiny island just off shore.

 

Asami and Suoh had swam around the end of the dock, then parallel to the shore towards the crumbling cone that was pushing up out of the lake. At some point, after the original huge volcano had erupted with enough fury it had emptied itself out and then collapsed into its own dead heart, a second tiny baby volcano had tried to build itself up from the lakebed in a bid to claim the first one’s former glory. But eventually, it seemed to have decided it had better things to do and had stilled, allowing time and the elements to wear away at it until only its solidified core remained, about the size of a three story house. The men had gotten onto the rocky shore and walked around a bit, but had soon realized that the only thing really worth seeing there was each other’s naked ass. They had sat on some previously sun warmed rocks that linked the islet to the shore when the water lever was lower, and talked for a little while, just enjoying the somewhat warmer shallow water covering their laps along with the relative safety of being anonymous, in the ass-end of nowhere, inside a foreign country. They had slipped back into the colder water, deciding to head back to the dock when they heard something that sounded like a rockslide rattling down through the pines. Sweeping all debris in their path before them came two startlingly contrasting canines, barreling down on them at breakneck speed: one massive and black, one slight and silvery white. Without hesitation they stormed down the shore and leapt out to the waiting rocks, the big one barely getting the fur between his toes wet while the smaller one with the shorter stride splashed up plenty of spray with a lot of enthusiasm. Without even looking at the pair of “uprights” bobbing in the water, they leapt from rock to rock, then gained the island. They continued right up the side of the cone until they got to the mounded summit. Stopping just long enough to let their tongues loll out, they looked up over the crater as the moon slid into its final position, blocking out the sun. As fireflies dances in the darkness to music the crickets made, both Wolves began to harmonize their howls. Asami watched as his Wolf stood proud, a black mass against the darkness as the smaller ghostly one threw its head back to howl with such gusto, it briefly pulled its front legs off the ground. Long minutes later the Moon continued on its voyage and a slim crescent on the Sun was seen again as the serenade wound down.

Swimming back to shore, the men made their way onto a small gravel beach below the lookout platform and sat at a deserted picnic area as they waited for their Chinese comrade to make his way along a trail from the dock with their clothes. Approaching the waiting men, Fei Long kept his eyes trained on the Wolves now rough-housing on the island across from them. “Who is that Wolf with your black bastard, Asami?” he asked, handing the piles of clothing back to their owners. As the pair made their way down to the rocks leading to the mainland, Asami and Suoh dressed as they all watched the beasts go from rock to rock, occasionally slipping or trying to push the other one into the water. By the time the duo made it back to land, all three men were dressed and waiting for them. Asami’s Wolf watched their reactions as his smaller partner in crime fearlessly moved ahead a few paces for a sniff as it looked them over. Since the bigger partner didn’t have a problem with them being there, the white one just went with it too. Both focused on the medium sized human as he started to speak.

“Well, that was a dramatic entrance. At least your friend there seems to be able to keep up with you.” As Asami spoke, those familiar eyes and that temptingly yummy scent made the white tail start to wag its Wolf. In a rough voice rusty from disuse, a shakily whispered “Asami?” was heard.

With a great deal of pride, the black beast addressed the trio. “Suoh, Fei Long, my dear Baka, it is my pleasure to present to you my intended.” The startled men looked from one Wolf to the other, noting that the pale Wolf was starting to fade with the increasing light. As the Sun was regaining its supremacy in the daytime sky, the fading was spreading fast. Looking around one last time, the now misty-looking wolf went up to its dark compatriot and rubbed its head against the strong shoulder. As his big head came down to rub back, the smaller wolf jumped up and held onto him by his thick neck as the slighter one used its last few moments to slobber a big wet lick between his eyes before disappearing with a bright laugh. Chuckling as he shook his head to rid it of drool, he flashed a wolfish smile at Asami as he himself started to fade a bit around the edges. “Yes indeed, Ryu, I guarantee you they’ll be our mates soon.”

Giving Asami a hard look, Fei asked incredulously “Mate?! Asami, who was that?”

Sharing a smug look with the now smokey shadow of his wolf before he too faded away, Asami turned and gave his Baishe cohort a superior smirk as he shrugged and simply said “My Akihito”.

 

Aki snorted as he jolted awake, half hanging off of his couch. He must’ve fallen asleep after watching his newest zombie movie “Train to Busan” into the early hours. It was a great movie: it had realistic characters and an actual a plot, not just gore and guts, jiggling boobs and dumbass jocks. He was pretty sure Asami would like it. Dammit, now he just hoped it wasn’t going to go ruin his enjoyment of mindless trash. He did have standards, after all.

And what he also had lately was weird-ass dreams. He’d had another one of those ones where he was tussling with his tall, dark and hairy playmate, this time in that park in America that Asami and his business partner were going to go watch the eclipse at. He’d seen some pictures online, and it looked like an awesome place. His photos would have been amazing; too bad their passports hadn’t arrived yet. It would have been a great trip with Kou and Takato. Their first trip outside of Japan, half way across the world would have been a dream come true. And his bros with Asami’s guys would have been a nice chance to see what each other was about when they weren’t all tied down with work.

Because… It seemed like Takato and Suoh had gotten over their little pissing contest to see who was the biggest and baddest and finally realized that they didn’t have to be their usual über protective “must take care of all things smaller than I” selves around each other, and could actually unclench a little and breath. And while they weren’t quite at the “holding hands at the movies” stage yet, Aki wasn’t that surprised that the oldest of their troupe had stopped going out with girls in favour of spending a lot of free time with Suoh and Kirishima. Who, according to Aki’s best sources, had started to take quite an interest in little Kou. From what he had heard, Kou had encouraged his buddies to spend some time getting to know their potential beaus, and had ventured out to some bars and casual dining places in the city by himself once or twice. That had apparently not gone over well with the number two man of Sion. He had a dedicated group watch out for Kou the nights that Suoh was actually off and out of the security office now, and had authorized a clandestine intervention or two out of the boy’s sight to make sure he had a quiet evening. Despite the surveillance, the two men had innocently bumped into each other at a late night bookstore of all places, then stayed up all night at a twenty-four hour coffee shop, and hadn’t left Tokyo since. Last Kou had messaged him, he let him know he was still over at Kei’s apartment, and that Kei made freakin’ awesome tacos, had an extensive library of 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray copies of EVERYTHING, and he couldn’t talk long as they were busy plotting out his syllabus: Sion was going to send him to college next semester for a two year Early Childhood Education diploma with a General Office Admin diploma tossed in to give him some options. Aww, how sweet.

Hmm, speaking of sweet, he wondered what his great big hot mound of man muffin was up to. OMG, did he really just think that. Ugh, gross. But… suddenly the idea of melted butter dripping down those abs, stretched out taut, did things to him deep down inside that made him squirm. Gods, he was missing that man’s attentions. He wondered if Asami missed him, or if he’d cuddled up with someone else. As much as he told himself he didn’t really care, that Asami was used to having his needs met, and they weren’t getting taken care of by him, the thought still stung. He knew it wasn’t like they were dating or anything. Once the businessman got his piece of ass, he’d likely cut him loose and move on. Probably try to buy him off with a bauble or two, no hard feelings, just stay away, like all the others before him. Didn’t matter, his guys were putting down roots here and had a chance at a better future now than they’d had on their own out there. Even if he ended up getting tossed out of Sion, he’d try everything he could pull to make sure Kou and Takato stayed put.

His thoughts got interrupted by the message chime on his phone going off. Speak of the devil. Opening his phone, he touched the screen and saw he had a picture message. Clicking on it opened up a panoramic selfie of the inside of crater, the unbelievable blue lake, the last edge of the eclipse, and the man himself. That face, those eyes, the dark hair… Giving it up to Asami wouldn’t kill him, but getting discarded by the man might just make him wish he was dead. Whatever. His family was worth it. The message underneath read “miss you”. Well, time to play his part, then.

 

Asami felt his phone vibrate in his pocket. Pulling it out, he checked to see who it was from and grinned as his wolf cracked open an eye inside his head in interest, wanting to see what their blond had sent in response. And he certainly didn’t disappoint! The picture he’d messaged them showed their boy was a clever little kitten. He’d set up his camera pointing at his partially opened bedroom door. All the lights were off except the table lamp by his bedside. The camera was angled up at it, only to show the light was blocked out by the side profile of the boy’s pert naked ass, the rest of him hidden by the door. It looked like the boy's derrière was surrounded by a halo, like maybe it belonged in the Sistine Chapel with other sacred pieces of art. The message read “too bad you went all the way to America to see the eclipse. You could’ve seen this one, here, instead”. Putting his phone away, he nodded to the guard with him to lead the way to the elevator. They waited for a few minutes until their ride arrived and the door slid open.  They stepped inside and Asami loosened his bathrobe belt slightly as his escort pressed the button for Akihito’s floor.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You may notice that I've changed songs for the lyrics to make the chapter titles. I'd almost ran out of lines I could use from "Bad Moon Rising" anyways, and the funny thing is, every time I lost the update, I'd hear Duran Duran's "Hungry Like the Wolf" playing. Hey, I ain't dumb. I've seen all the "Final Destination" movies and saw what happened whenever the song "Don't Fear the Reaper" came on... 'Nuff said.


	14. In Touch with the Ground

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As far as Aki knows, The Big Guy is still overseas. Which kind of leaves him unprepared for the big surprise that's about to land on his doorstep. But don't worry, later on a more welcome surprise makes an appearance...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah, I know. It's been a month since I last updated this fic. The spirit was willing, but the flesh was weak. Exhausted, point in fact. I'm so frickin' worn out by school, family weddings, funerals and weather-related migraines, I'd need some time off just to relax enough for a vacation. I finally cleared away the assignments and exams and stuff, just to take a few minutes to read "Prey in the Abyss" by J_Unleashed. Erh mah gerd. I had to go lay down afterwards.

 

 

Aki had just finished getting dressed when he heard a knock on his apartment door. Not expecting anyone so early, he got up to answer it and was surprised to see his friend Tadao from the surveillance team on the other side, checking his phone. They said hello and chatted a bit, checking to see if each was up on the latest Sion gossip. His friend declined to come in for some tea, saying he had a delivery to make before his day started. Moving aside, he revealed the biggest, blackest damn dog sitting behind him the blond had ever seen. Momentarily startled by the sheer size of the thing, he stared at it as it casually looked down the hallway towards the elevators.

“What the hell is that?!”

“Yeah, sorry, I should explain. This big guy is Asami-sama’s, and since Kirishima-san is busy running Sion from the head office while he and Suoh-san are away, he wanted to know if you might look after this fella for awhile. You know, take him out with you, exercise him, try to wear him out so he doesn’t get bored and start eating expensive furniture in the penthouse...”

“Geez, man, is that really a dog? I was going to ask when your big boss started keeping horses on the property.”

The huge black head turned around to look at him, and regarded him with golden eyes that reminded him of Ryuichi’s. The look was neither friendly nor reserved, it just seemed to size him up as a potential snack. He felt an atavistic shiver come on, but refused to give in to it on principle, the boy returned the favour as he looked the creature over, wondering if it was stretched out as a rug, if the beast would cover his living room floor. Deciding he wasn’t going to intimidate the kid after all, the canine seemed to relax some and started to push past the guard, wanting to go inside. Just to be stopped by a slight hand splayed out right in front of its snout.

“Excuse me, Mr. Rude. Where do ya think you’re going?”

The guard laughed a bit nervously, thinking about the times he’d seen Asami-sama’s wolf easily rip vital parts off people much bigger than Akihito here. With a look of “...really…?”, the hairy thing opened its mouth in a huge yawn that showed lots of frightening teeth and ended with a small whine, and thumped its ass down on the hallway carpet, looking bored.

“Well, I should be going. If you’re taking him out today, might I suggest going beyond the fence to the obstacle course and cross-country track the next lot over? Plenty of acres out there for him to work out his muscles.”

“Alright. Does he need a leash?”

“Ha. If you think you can get a collar on him first, good luck to ya, Aki. He's the biggest and baddest of them all here, and if he wants to go somewhere, I don’t think much would stop him. I’ll check in at the end of my day, see if you want him here overnight or not.”

“Right. Have a good day.”

“You too”, he said as he headed towards the elevator. Swiping his ID badge, he stepped inside the open door, picked up the discarded bathrobe on the floor, and pushed the top button for the penthouse. Hopefully that big black dick wouldn’t chew up the kid and spit him out, just to be a jerk.

Aki turned his attention to the mound of fur in front of him, trying to decide what to do. He didn’t have any real plans today, and some outdoor exercise sounded like a good idea, so he asked his guest “Would you like to come in and wait while I change?” Ears pricked up as those eyes looked at him pointedly, and the dog let out a grumble. “Fine, just stay where I can see you”, the blond said as he backed away from the doorway and allowed his surprise visitor in. Who farted in gratitude and wandered into the boy’s apartment. Aki quickly shut his door and prayed the smell wouldn’t try to crawl its way in under the frame. He felt sorry for anyone walking down the hallway and getting ambushed by the wretched stench. Ugh, who died, and why did the mutt have to eat them. Leaving the genkan, the blond looked around and didn’t see the Hound of the Baskervilles anywhere. With a bad feeling, he took off to find his companion’s companion in his bedroom, up on the bed, thoroughly inspecting it with his nose. “Hey, only Asami and I share it, and I ain’t easy, so if you think you’re sleeping with me, think again, bucko.”

The wolf could feel Asami chuckle in his head and swell with possessive pride at that declaration as the man’s metaphysical libido started to swell with desire too at their combined scents in the mattress triggering heady memories of what sweet, innocent, dirty fun they’d had in bed so far. The wolf grumbled as he got off and lay down across the doorway, trying like hell to look uninterested as the boy changed in front of him into older, worn clothes for roughing around in. As Aki was putting on a sock, the wolf suddenly surged up from the floor to grab its helpless mate lying on the bed and took off into the living room, a shouting, arm-flapping blond in hot pursuit. The wolf whirled about and braced itself like it was going to pounce, momentarily scaring the living shit out of Akihito until the front half of the body dropped and the fore legs splayed out, showing his desire to play. The boy stopped short at this, eyeing the teeth holding his sock captive in that big mouth. The wolf gave his head a shake with an eager whine, the sock flopped around his head enticingly. Most of the boy’s experience with dogs went ‘bout as far as yappy models and their yappy spoiled purse dogs. Not having ever seen anything near this size before, he was a little leery of getting too close to the end with all the teeth that probably ate a couple of those little dogs for breakfast.

Deciding to show that he was the boss ‘cuz he was closer to the top of the food chain, he snapped his fingers, held his hand out and commanded “give!”. The demon dog looked at him as if he’d just realized he was dealing with someone of a subpar intellect. “Hey! I said GIVE!” The huge black head turned away, but not before the blond could’ve sworn he’d seen those golden eyes get rolled at him. “Listen, prick. I don’t know what you and Asami do for fun, and I don’t care. In my place, you don’t eat my clothes. They’re all polyester and cheap crap, so gods only know what’ll happen to you if you swallow it.” Probably unravel in his guts into a huge hairball to barf up. Or get stuck somewhere inside. Or worse. Worried now, Aki stepped forward and grabbed the dangling end of his sock, just for the hell hound to shake his head enthusiastically and almost rip Aki’s arm from his body. Grunting and pulling on the sock which was somehow still in the boy’s hand, he whined eagerly, big plume of a tail whacking back and forth , threatening to knock the sheathing off the wall beside him. Aki sighed and gave up. “Fine. You want it, you can have it. I’m going to put another pair on though, ok?” He was just turning, ready to let go, when the black bear took a step forward so the blond couldn’t drop his end. Looking at the beast suspiciously, he huffed ‘are you shittin’ me?’, and tried it again. Once more, the creature moved quick smart to keep connected with the boy. With the sock held slack between them, Asami’s wolf heeled as pretty as you please back into the bedroom; grumbling when Aki dropped his end just long enough for him to take his single sock off, reach into the dresser drawer and pull out another pair. Putting them on, he stuffed the remaining undrooled-on sock into his back pocket, reached for the somewhat soggy sockie in the dog’s mouth, and headed back out to the living room with the hound happily being lead around. Stepping into his shoes, he grabbed his swipe card on its lanyard, put it around his neck, and out the door they went.

The walk through the concourse was… fun. The always-present crowd parted when they saw the pair coming at them, the wolf leading the boy by the sock. Stopping by a store that had doggie toys, Aki selected two good sized bouncy balls, took them to the counter and started to pull out a couple of folded yen notes. The store owner waved them off, smiling as he told Aki that if he was going to play fetch with that one, he’d need to save his money for the hospital bill. Akihito looked at him for a moment, then thanked him for the balls, went over to the walking sofa, took hold of his end of the sock and left. He noticed as they headed for the outside doors that a fair number of people had stopped to watch them go by, talking among themselves as they took photos or movie clips on their phones. He wondered idly what they would be tagged as, #BlondBeautyandtheBeast ? The dog snorted just then, almost as if he’d read his mind. Aki eyed him suspiciously as they left the building, headed towards the fence line.

 

Once he’d closed the gate behind them, he let go of the sock and started to stretch as he walked away towards the obstacle course path. Asami’s wolf let him get a few paces ahead so they could both appreciate watching their boy’s muscles move under his clothes. The wolf could hear Asami purr his desire for Aki as he imagined watching that body writhe as the blond lost control underneath him, crying out and pleading for more…

Meanwhile, the nubile nymph?/satyr? in question was starting to jog away from them. Well, THAT wasn’t going to fly. The wolf trotted after him and caught up easily, maintaining the pace as his boy started going faster. They were both doing a pretty fair clip as they came up to the obstacles. Aki went on the inside track, sizing them up, his four-legged shadow sticking with him, sock dangling away. They finished the circuit and stopped for a few moments at the start pole. Aki looked at the dog and grinned. “Ready?” The black head urfhed once with its full mouth. “Ok, on three… two… one… You’re it!” he yelled as he grabbed the sock away and took off full speed, the devil dog hot on his heels.

They took the tunnel crawl and the low walls in stride, didn’t slow down for the low hurdles or the hill run or the tires. As they ran up a rise and made a sharp turn, they came to the approach for the traverse wall. Aki didn’t adjust his stride or pace as he approached the wall and ignoring the hand and foot holds, ran right up the side, grabbed the top with both hands, pulled himself up and threw a leg over and perched there on the wall, holding up the sock enticingly and calling down sweetly “here, puppypuppypuppy…”. The dog eyed him, then the sock, turned and trotted off a few yards, then turned back and charged the wall and leapt up it, digging its nails into the wood before jumping upwards again to hook its elbows over the top and lever itself up onto all fours. He trotted along the top plank up to the startled boy and took back possession of the prized sock while pushing him off the wall, accidentally on purpose, of course. Akihito landed in the sand pit below on his back, getting the air knocked out of him. Looking up, he saw the the black hound grinning down at him, sock in mouth.

“Bastard”, the blond growled before leaping up and scaling the smooth backside of the wall, grabbing the startled canine around his neck, planted both feet and kicked backward off the wall, dragging the mutt off with him. They both hit the sand with a thump, and while Asami’s wolf lay there, stunned, Aki breathed deep once or twice, rolled over, took back the prized sock, stuck his tongue out, then got up and started running again. The wolf laid his forehead flat on the sand and watched the boy depart from his upside-down perspective, waiting until the blond was far enough away before he started rolling in the sand, snickering as Asami’s laughter rang in his ears. _‘Fuck, Baka. If he had furry ears and a fluffy little tail, he’d be perfect for both of us just as he is.’_

After catching back up to Aki on the balance beam by knocking him off as he shoved past, the wolf and the blond hit the last obstacle together, easily took the wall side then both slid down the ramp to the bottom where they landed in a heap. They lay there for a bit, letting Aki get his breathing slowed a bit. The boy moved himself around to lay against the black furball, staring up at the sky. The wolf sighed, enjoying the contact, when the blond spoke up. “You were up on the roof that night, weren’t you. The night Asami caught me. You led him to me. I’m not sure how much of that night I remember was real, ‘cause I was coming down with something, but I remember you scaring the shit outta me.” The wolf lifted his head in concern, looking over at the boy’s face, trying to read his emotions. Akihito refused to look at the furry face, focusing up at the clear blue overhead. “So, you and the big guy are a team, a package deal, huh? Are we going to be ok while Asami and I are together? Don’t worry, I doubt it’ll be for long. I’ve heard about his past conquests, and I’ve got lots less to offer him than any of them did.” He patted the beast beneath him comfortingly, biting his lip. “Once the novelty of having a newbie wears off, he’ll be all yours again, Big Dawg. You poor ol’ thing.”

The wolf had swivelled his ears around as he listened to the boy, forehead wrinkled at what he and Asami were hearing. Their boy thought this was going to be a hit ‘n’ run? Oh no, that would NOT do. At. All. He partially lifted his front half up as he whined and curled around to lick the boy’s face. Aki giggled and tried to fend off the wet onslaught. “Hey, back off. I’m into Asamis, not plushies!” The wolf rose up suddenly, dumping the boy onto the sand, then pinned him down and started to go to town on him with the slobbering. Poor Akihito almost succumbed to drowning on dry land.

Later on, they headed off down the cross country running track, Aki putting a ball in each sock and flinging them off in random directions for the dark four legged demon to chase after as they ran the course. A couple of times Aki threw both balls far away and hid off-track, down wind of the returning dog, making it harder for the beastie to find him, just to pop out and try to startle the mutt once he’d gone past his hiding spot. Finally, enough was enough, and the dog turned the tables on him. The blond started getting nervous, thinking maybe he had hidden his trail too well in the tall grass and weeds this time for Asami’s dog to find him. He hadn’t heard any panting or sniffing for a while now, and was getting nervous that the giant dog had either wandered off or gotten lost looking for him. He got up on his knees and quietly poked his head up over the tall grass to look around, when a sudden flurry black fur, teeth and slavering, growling jaws appeared inches from his face, barking load enough to brush the hair from the boy’s face, scaring any hope for one last growth spurt out of him. The big black dog then sat down in front of him, both sock balls in his mouth, grinning away while what sounded like chuckles mixed with his panting. Akihito managed to convince his soul it was safe to come back to him as he wiped more slobber off his face and grumbled “jerk”.

When the pair finally returned to the compound, there seemed to be an even bigger crowd waiting around to see how had many survivors from the trek came back under their own power. Trotting slightly ahead, Asami’s wolf proudly carried his trophy pair of ball socks while beside him, not the least bit worse for wear, came his blond boy, hand resting on the back of his neck, occasionally giving his black head a vigorous scratch between the ears; both of them were dirty and sandy in spots, with bits of grass sticking out here and there, looking like they’d had the time of their lives together. Tadao breathed a sigh of relief that the little blond had survived as he took a pic on his phone and forwarded it to Aki and Suoh-san before heading to the bank of elevators to catch the the odd pair on their way back to the boy's place.

 

After checking with Kirishima that it was alright as a treat, Aki had started supper, tossing scraps of beef from the nikujaga he was preparing to an appreciative bear of a dog. No tricks expected from His Majesty, just giving him his due. When supper was over, the two sacked out on the couch, Aki with his tablet, playing online, the wolf by his side with his head on the boy’s lap, thinking things over. He and Asami agreed that the introduction to the pack concept had gone amazingly well, considering the boys were already living most of the values the Asamis had adopted for a successful pack long ago. They needed to start tomorrow coming up with a way all three boys could have the idea of werewolves introduced to them without any of them being traumatized, as both Kazumi and Kei had indicated their intentions with their respective young men; and Kou and Takato so far were receptive to their attentions. But if one of them rejected the idea of pairing up with the men and their wolves, all three would likely flee. As for their boisterous, beautiful blond, Asami felt he needed to let his Akihito know that he was back early, just for him, and start building a relationship from there. His wolf agreed, suggesting that they wait until after the boy was asleep to change. Asami, ever the trusting little soul, repeated his growled warning about the wolf not touching the boy inappropriately. The wolf sniffed, offended, and delicately lifted his hind leg up to concentrate on licking himself and ignoring his Baka.

  
As bedtime finally rolled around, Akihito was busy trying to fend off his big black swain. “I said no, got it? I mean it…”, he threatened and shook his head at the massive dog trying to guilt his way onto the bed with the blond. “A piece of advice? The innocent look and those big puppy-dog eyes ain’t gonna fool anyone, so don’t waste your time.” The wolf huffed at him, looking injured. Aki huffed right back, looking irritated. “Beat it, Buster.”

The wolf hung his head, probably whining piteously about how he thought they were buds now, and how the boy was doing him wrong. The blond stayed firm, crossing his arms over his chest. The big doggie melted into a puddle on the floor, crying and sobbing about how unloved he felt. Aki held firm. Until the loud, mournful wailing started up in the small space. Then he just caved, not wanting to piss off the neighbours. “Fiiine. Get on the bed, you big suck. You are NOT getting fur under my sheet, got it.” Hardly moving a muscle, the four-legged moocher levitated onto the bed, settling down facing away from their boy. “And wipe that smirk off your face, mister. I can hear it from here.”

 

In the early hours of the morning, Akihito was partly awakened by the shifting of a heavy weight in bed with him and a large warm mass settled against him. Grumbling sleepily, Aki turned onto his side and started to drift off, just to feel something nuzzling the back of his neck. Groaning in frustration, he moved his hand back to push the dog away, just to feel warm, bare skin instead. “Asami?” he breathed, wanting to roll over and make sure he wasn’t dreaming even as he felt a strong arm wrap around him and pull him back tight against a powerful torso.

“Well, and here I was, missing you, wondering what you were doing while I was so far away. I cut my trip short and came all the way home, just to find you in bed with my best friend? Naughty boy…” Aki shivered as he felt the rumble from Asami’s chest through his back as the dark purr tickled his ear, just to arch back into the man behind him as he licked a swath up the nape of the blond’s neck. “I wonder if you even noticed I was gone… How disappointing. I was hoping for a somewhat more enthusiastic welcome home than a snoring boy passed out cold.”

“Asami?! What are you doing here? When did you get back?”

“Like I said, my sleepy little kitten, I missed you, and came back early because I wanted to be with you again.”

“What, couldn’t find a Stateside local to act as a travel companion?”

Where there had been a contented purr, there was now a growl, and a sudden stinging nip to his ear that made him yip. “What I may, or may not have done in my past travels has nothing to do with here, and now, and us. I can’t ask you to be mine, as much as I want to, if we first don’t have trust. I realized something while I was away, my Akihito. I have travelled to many places, been with many people and I’ve seen many things. And what was worse than missing you was the futile wish to share the experience with you, and not being able to do that. So, I have to go to Macau next week to meet with my new partners, celebrate our alliance and formalize our plans, and when Suoh, Kirishima and I leave, we are taking the three of you with us.” The blond wiggled around to look at the bigger man in bed with him, big eyes staring as his mouth dropped open in surprise.

“Macau? Next week? Really?”

Asami grinned and teasingly answered in a serious tone “Hmm, yes, yes, and of course, yes. I doubt very much Yoh and Tao would forgive me for travelling to their home territory and not bringing you with me. And if I didn’t introduce you to their big brother by the third trip, I’m pretty sure he would toss me off Hong Kong Island himself, then banish me from China altogether.”

With a whoop, Aki swarmed over Asami and started planting kisses anywhere he could reach, much more in line with what Asami had been hoping for as a welcome home. Chuckling between getting their lips to meet a couple of times, Asami was doubly delighted to find that while his boy was wiggling around in his grasp, “somehow” his hand had managed to work its way into his kitten’s undies and his boy was now wearing his boxers down around his knees while one of the man’s large hands had custody of a bare asscheek. Stroking and squeezing it, he managed to get in a few more honest to goodness kisses as his boy started to wind down a little. Finally settling down and snuggling up against that muscular body that made him feel so safe and warm and wanted, Aki covered up a yawn and asked if Fei Long had come back early as well. Tucking the boy’s head under his chin, he told him the leader of the Baishe had continued on with the trip by himself, loving to visit the Redwood forests whenever he got a chance. The blond then asked if the eclipse had been as spectacular as the pictures at Crater Lake made it seem. Instead of answering, Asami told him again how much he regretted not bringing his boy with him, but wondered if he was interested in photographing the total lunar eclipse coming up in January in the mountains of the west coast of Canada, or in the Hawai’in Islands? Perhaps somewhere on the Gold Coast of Australia; mmm, how about on a private beach in Fiji? Too tired by now to start up with the kissing again, Aki just wrapped himself around Asami and squeezed the man for as long and as tight as he could until he drifted off.


	15. Strut on the Line, of Discord and Rhyme

 

 

It had taken all of one minute after Tao had been introduced by the blond to his bros before they were comparing stories of typical “Aki-isms” while the blond fumed on the sidelines, thinking dire thoughts about handing out complimentary atomic wedgies. Asami and his entourage were met at the Macau airport by the youngest of the Liu boys, and the lads had split off into a separate limo for the trip to the hotel, where Fei Long was already entertaining the Arbatov group.

The night before, all three heads of Sion were at Asami’s penthouse for a review of travel plans, visitor guidelines and guest etiquette with their respective boys over dinner, and once drinks were enjoyed over tales of past crazy adventures and close calls by both trios of friends, Takato and Kou headed off to the Betas’ apartments for an early night. This time, after a leisurely evening of pleasurable touching and intimate exploration and shared enjoyment of each other’s body, Aki spent the night in Asami’s bed, aware that he was drifting off to soft kisses and nuzzles as he was cradled in strong, warm arms.

The drive to Narita International Airport was underway before the sun had even touched most of the district skyscrapers’ antennas. The VIP treatment at the airport given to the group on their way to Sion’s private hanger was almost intimidating to the youngest members. And while the taxiing to the runway then hurtling into the sky in Asami’s own jet was thrilling enough for the first time travellers, the mimosas, fresh fruit salad and pastry breakfast served was downright exotic. Afterwards, the three men sat in the lounge area, talking shop over tea and coffee as the excited youngsters took pics of everything in sight, inside and outside of the plane, on their phones. Eventually, the early start and the excitement caught up to the boys, and one by one, they made their way over to the couch or chair their man was in, and got comfy. Kou was curled into Kei’s side, dozing off with an arm around him as Takato sat on the over-stuffed arm on the chair, leaning into Kazumi as he quietly played a game on his phone. Aki came over to Asami, and without prompting, sat across his lap, arms around the fixer, head laying on a broad shoulder as he stared out the window, quietly taking in the clouds floating past them as their plane chased its shadow across the East China Sea.

 

After Yoh met them at the grand entrance and introduced the Sion group to their in-hotel support staff and Baishe liaisons, he escorted them to their floor and left the men to settle into their accustomed suites with their boys. Aki’s hazel eyes seemed to take up half of his face as he slowly walked into the two-story open space, gawking at the sitting area, the entertainment lounge, the kitchen bar and dining area, the huge wall of windows looking out to sea and the winding spiral staircase leading up to the loft bedrooms above. A deep voice, right beside his ear, gave him a start. “Does everything meet with your approval?”

Whipping his head around, the blond looked up at the amused smile on that devilish face and gasped “Asami! This… this is incredible!”

The tall man hummed in satisfaction as he smoothed one hand against his Akihito’s cheek and drew him in for a kiss. “Good. I want you to get used to this, because I want you with me whenever I can.” Golden eyes watched his boy’s irises subtly flow into a hue with more shades of blue in them. The boy’s wolf was getting stronger, ready to bridge the gap. All things being equal, he’d take his first guided steps to start conversing with his canid before the next full moon. But first…

“Are you tired, kitten? Do you wish to rest after the trip?”

“Nope, I’m fine.”

“Well, if you start getting weary, bow out of whatever’s going on and rest, alright?”

Lifting himself up on his toes, Aki touched noses with his… what, suitor? “Boyfriend” was totally wrong; there was nothing boyish about this man right here. Even at his most relaxed, mellowed out and drowsy with dopamine after they’d played, at most he would tease or joke a little. And that thought suddenly sparked another one: he wondered what it’d look like to see Asami play. He had to tuck that little brainstorm away to start brewing later as something in those eyes staring down at him shifted. “Hmm, am I missing something, or are you trying to get me in a reclining position, Asami?”

“No, you are sharp as usual, kitten.” As he spoke, he captured the blond’s lips in a soft kiss to distract the boy as he bent down and scooped him up, carrying Akihito to the couch closest to the window and lay him down on it, just to check him out up and down as he divested himself of his suit jacket, tie, and, uh, well, vest. Aki, meanwhile, was rearranging himself more comfortably to take in the show, not having the pleasure of seeing those muscles and that chest in daylight very often. Mmm, or that luscious back that was turning away from him to put his shirt aside. Oh, my, how he wanted to add some serious scratch marks across that back; to stake his claim, so to speak. Maybe he was feeling a little reckless after Asami’s surprise return (and even more surprising declaration), but he was starting to entertain the idea of a possible happy ending, after all. Just maybe, all three of his crew could come out winners for once.

But any such thoughts were brushed away by the whisper of a touch to his blond locks by that man’s hand. Looking up, he saw Asami’s eyes again, calm and contemplative rather than carnivorous or calculating. With him. Just with him. Only him. Which made him want to shiver.

“Akihito, the other men here, they are all like me. They’re cold, manipulative, wanting things their own way with the least amount of fuss, and no compunctions on how it gets done. The younger Liu brothers know you, and they’ll watch out for you boys. Fei Long, even if you pissed on his ancestors’ grave, as long as you’re a guest in his territory, he’d rain hellfire down on anyone who would try to screw with you or your friends. But without any kind of sign stating that you were under my protection, there are a few asses around that would try to take a run at you, even here, just to piss me off and sow discord among the group. So, kitten, I’m going to mark you as mine, as plainly as I can.” Saying that, he lowered himself onto the outside edge of the couch, cutting off the boy’s escape route, and began licking and sucking and biting him from ear the clavicle on the one side of the boy’s neck. And just as he was getting ready to roll his panting, blushed-out blond over to start on the other side, Asami’s cell phone went off. Asami’s head came up above the back of the couch, shooting a dark look of pure loathing at his phone, DARING it to ring again. Which it did. Cursing the fact that he hadn’t flushed it away on the flight over to Macau, he got up and in five pissy strides, picked his phone up from the kitchen bar counter and all but snarled “Asami”.

“My, did I catch you at an inopportune moment?”

Sighing, the big man closed his eyes as he grudgingly greeted his host. “Fei Long. Have the Russians settled in.”

A laugh sounding a bit too close to hysteria was his answer. “Yes. I think he brought every third person in his organization, and they were all treating me like a steward or head butler. I expect to hear from the staff soon that they’re pissing in the corners, clawing the drapes and chewing on the upholstery. Vodka swilling barbarians.”

Asami tsked, sounding sympathetically unsympathetic. “Next time we all meet, I’ll host. At least I can write-off any damages to Sion’s corporate taxes and then use it as an excuse to rebuild the hotel if I need to. Who did Mikhail bring from the Arbatovs?”

“Just his uncle Yuri. He left his cousin Aaron safely back home alone.”

Asami grunted. “Well, we’ll have to keep the old man far away from Tao and the boys. I expect that if they’re not going into the city or Hong Kong to look around, they’ll be living in and around the pool on the roof deck.” The triad leader agreed, deciding if the weather held, any post meeting socializing could be held out on the roof area to keep an eye on the uninvolved youths.

“Between the three of us with Kei and Suoh, he won’t get a chance with any of them like he tried that time with Yoh. How Father didn’t throw him into the harbour with an anchor around his balls right then and there, I’ll never know.” ‘And then watched how often his wolf would even try to revive him after the repeated drownings before it just gave out’, both men thought. “Anyhow, I’ll be sending for Akihito in a few moments.”

Asami frowned. “Now, before we have lunch?”

“Well, of course. That way, if we hit it off, we can make an afternoon of it… Get acquainted over a leisurely meal, learn each other’s tastes and preferences…” Asami’s lips curled back into a soundless growl, momentarily revealing a sharp canine to go with his fearsome look. Before Asami could even start to threaten his host, a firm knock sounded on their door. Not caring about his shirtless state, the leader of Sion barked out the command to enter as he squared off facing the entrance. It opened, admitting an alluring woman and man, both of slight build and seemingly in their mid twenties.

“Asami-sama.” Both respectfully bowed to the dominant figure in the room before turning slightly and bowing towards the blond head poking up over the arm of the couch. “Young Sir.”

“Ah, good, they’re there. Just have them run the boy up here, and you can have them back to entertain you while we’re occupied.”

“No thank you, Fei Long. I’ll entertain myself until Akihito returns.”

“Suit yourself. Don’t wait up…” the teasing voice advised before the call dropped. Asami’s eyes narrowed as he shut off his screen, glaring at the waiting couple before him as if he was going to give in to his wolf’s urging and bite one or both of them. Hard.

“Asami?” Calming, he turned and despite himself, smiled in amusement at the disheveled and somewhat piqued look his Akihito was giving him.

“Yes, kitten?”

The blond blushed and scowled at the yakuza for using his barely-tolerated pet name in front of others. He did, however, know better than hold his breath while he waited for an apology by now. “What, if it pleases Your Bastardship, is going on?”

Apparently, a grinning Asami startled the Baishe pair as much as a snarky human mouthing off at him did. Openly staring at the back and forth going on in front of them, they kept glancing at each other, wondering what exactly they were going to report to their master about the couple.

Gesturing to the pair, Asami introduced them. “These are special messenger envoys for the Baishe hierarchy; more specifically, they are like the pages that were employed by the Imperial Court. They are assigned to certain family members when they are in attendance, entitled friends and specials allies. Whatever the visitor wants or needs, they will ensure it gets done.” Watching the blond’s eyebrows climb, he turned and added “Her name is Daiyu, and he is Po. They are assigned to me, and thus, to you. Right now, they are here to escort you to meet Fei Long, then bring you back.” Addressing the bowing servants, Asami ordered “This is Takaba Akihito; he is under my protection and my personal care. Once his meeting with your master is done, he will return here, and we will have lunch. I will be waiting. Alone.” Both persons hesitated a moment in surprise, then Po went to open the door as Daiyu came forward to escort the surprisingly V.I.P. guest of their honoured guest. Not really sure if he could even refuse this summons, Aki did his best Scooby-Doo impression by shooting a look of “Relp me, Raggie!” to Asami as he went past. Just as he reached the door, his man spoke up.

“Akihito, I almost forgot.” Strolling over to the blond, he pulled one of his hands out of his pants pocket and dangled something from his fist. Aki stepped up and took hold of it, looking at it resting in his palm. It was a smooth oblong medallion of polished obsidian, with a howling wolf head and the crest of the Asami family carved in raised relief on the front, and a protection charm scribed onto its reverse. Asami gently took it out of his boy’s hand and draped it about his neck, cinching the cord in back so he could wear it hidden under his v-neck shirt collar. Aki blinked his eyes a couple of times to get the bright sunlight coming through the window out of his eyes (he was not getting teary, dammit!) before leaning up against his man, hands resting on that bare muscly chest and giving him a sweet kiss on the lips and shyly whispered his thanks. Asami gave him an indulgent smile and reminded him that he had said he’d have to mark him for his own good. A slightly scandalized look came over the blond’s face as he pointed to the red and purple marks on his neck and asked what the hell they were for, then. That lead to an evil smirk and the lazily drawled remark from the taller man that that was just something of a hobby. Or, as he put it, "What, do you think all of us crime lords have the time to memorize each other's dental pattern?" Which just earned him a hard shove away and the indignant yell of “ASS BASTARD!”

The blond wasn’t quite sure what he was expecting, but it wasn’t a parade through a palatial hall among lounging courtiers (various ranking triad members), high class courtesans of all types, soldiers (armed guards and well-heeled thugs), and ninety-nine other flavours of persons too illegal but well-placed to be touched by the Law. It seemed his little troupe of himself, his escorts, and the armed two-legged attack dogs accompanying them were walking through a museum with various displays of the family crests for Liu and Baishe through time, until a last set of opulent wood doors opened onto the modern Liu Willow Tree and the Baishe Serpent looming over everything in the room, but not overpowering the figure seated in the expensively ornate chair in front of a large stone screen. Aki admired the recessed lighting and the artistic touches that made the whole set piece seem like it could make anyone approaching that seated figure feel like a supplicant humbly coming before a warlord of old. Only thing was, Aki had been drunk with this man’s youngest brother, and had heard lots of stories only little bros could get away with repeating (and anybody who could put up with Tao for a baby brother couldn’t be all that bad in the end); secondly, he wasn’t there to beg anyone for anything.

“Master Fei Long, I present Takaba Akihito, honoured guest of your most esteemed friend and ally, Asami Ryuichi, as you wished.” The man, tall even when seated, nodded once and dismissed everyone but the photographer. Aki let the other man look him over as he admired the long thin intricately carved pipe stem in his fingers.

“Nice pipe. Classic opium?”

“Yes, it was Grandfather Liu’s favourite. I had it hollowed out more and converted to hide a small modified vaping rig. Much healthier when imbibing, and the vapour cloud adds just the right touch to impress.”

The blond nodded in approval. “Sweet. Before we leave, I’d love to photograph that in the right lighting.”

“Make it dramatic, like an old film noir poster, and I’ll get any set-up you need.”

The boy grinned in delight. “Deal. Call me Aki.”

The taller man regarded him for another moment, wondering if the kid was so easygoing with everyone he met, or just powerful billionaire businessmen and ruthless underworld bosses in particular, then permitted himself a smile. “Fei Long.”

The next hour with the blond was the most surprisingly enjoyable one he’d spent with someone outside of bed in a long time. After tea and chatting about the boy’s history and work, he tried seducing him. Nothing personal, but he knew the types they all attracted. If this was the one that Asami and his wolf wanted, better to vet and weed this boy out now if need be before he became more entrenched with his friend and brothers. So, seduce him, expose him then dispose of him, weather the storm with Asami, Yoh and especially Tao, and move on. Solid plan. Except, the kid couldn’t seem to take a hint. Not that he wasn’t bright, or catching onto the lure he was fishing with, but, it was like… this Aki was ignoring it. Him. Fine. He’d just be a little clearer about it then.

… And still, nothing?! This was ridiculous. Unheard of! Did he need a piece of paper and a crayon to draw this brat a picture? If this little shit didn’t break down and beg him on his knees in ten seconds…

“Uh, Fei Long, pardon me if I’m being presumptuous, but… it almost feels like you’re pushing this hospitality thing by trying to fuck me or something. And I respect the whole “bros before hos” philosophy if the “ho” in question is just looking for the bigger, better deal. But your doing me a big dis by thinking I’m that basic. Asami earned his money and power, he can have it. I just want to be with him while I can. And Tao’s an awesome guy on his own. I don’t need anything else.”

… Did this kid just shut him down? The hell was going on here. And he was almost pissed enough to tuck the blond under his arm, march into the prepared bedchamber and make him scream deliriously with being taken, Asami and his brothers be damned… but this honest/stubborn streak kind of surprised him. Someone in his position didn’t find this very often. Stubborn/stupid was boringly common; stupid/honest was a bit more rare. But this brat could become intriguing. And if the boy truly was only interested in Asami, anything he did to him would cause a preverbal shit storm. Better to wait then, and see what developed. He had nothing but time.

Two hours later, Asami and wolf were half mad with worry and over-protective jealousy, ready to tear their way up the staircase to the receiving hall above and carve their way through a Baishe wall of viscera to get to their mate and halt whatever their formerly trusted friend was doing to him, when Akihito calmly walked through the door and spoke to someone in the hallway: “… sure, lunch in fifteen sounds good.” Stopping wide-eyed when he saw the state his man was in, he slightly turned and called through the closing door “Uh… better make it thirty?” Turning back to Asami, he half waved nervously and swallowed. “Hi Honey, I’m home.” Swooping in to take his Akihito in his arms, his boy was quickly examined for any marks or stray scents, then kissed senseless and raised back upright, not being let go of until he was certain the blond could stand on his own two feet again.

He nibbled the boy’s neck over the marks he had left earlier before asking “What took so long?”

Aki gasped and shuddered before answering “Mm… I think he was feeling me out, trying to make sure I wasn’t getting close to you or his brothers for the wrong reasons. Rather protective, I’d say. And we got talking about my jobs and photography; oh, so I’m going to take his photo before we leave… That’s about it.”

Asami stopped for about two seconds before continuing. Protective of him? His younger brothers, obviously. His pack and the people that worked for them, of course. But him? Hmph. Better think about that another time, ‘cuz he was hungry and had a tasty, wiggly blond in his arms… Three knocks on the door surprised both of them and really annoyed the fuck out of one in particular. “Lunch service.”

After their meal, the boys enjoyed the roof top pool, all four of them floating about on the inflatable party island (complete with inflatable palm tree) that had been procured just for their visit. Yoh had advised Tao and the Sion Betas about Yuri Arbatov’s presence there, and surveillance was so tight in and around the hotel and casino that the despised old man wouldn’t be able to fart without a dozen reports coming in. As the three men sat at the upper deck overlooking the pool below them and the harbour in the distance, Suoh and Kirishima were seated at a nearby table, visiting with the Russian administrative assistant and security officer along with Yoh and the Baishe administrator, Momohara Ai. After Fei Long and Asami had voiced their displeasure at Mikhail’s uncle being brought along, the Russian had admitted that he had been forced to leave Aaron to look after things at home because he couldn’t trust Yuri not to mess up when on his own any more. Both groups were talking casually amongst themselves, getting caught up on news and gossip, relaxing before they got down to strategizing this alliance tomorrow when the splashing and yelling down below started. Everyone stopped to look over the railing to see what the commotion was all about. Turns out that one of the boys had found a number of pool toys that had magically appeared, which happened to include four rather powerful super soaker water blasters. All, it seemed, had already been filled and were being enthusiastically pumped. Takato got his pressurized first, followed by Aki, and the two began spraying each other right away. As soon as the other two started firing, it became a free-for-all. Suoh was grinning, the Russians were debating over drinks who had the better aim, while Momohara and Kirishima were giggling and trying not to snort. Yoh was rolling his eyes and smiling, and the gang lords were enjoying by far the most comical shoot-out either of them had ever witnessed.

Until… Aki’s foot skidded on a patch of wet tile by the pool. Trying to regain his balance, one leg and both arms started waving around in the air, soaker still in hand. Taking advantage of this distraction, somebody fired and hit the blond with a powerful stream of water to the chest, knocking him off balance and into the pool. Unfortunately, as he was tipping over, his finger reflexively squeezed the trigger, sending a stream of water straight up and into Asami’s face. All over the deck was a reflexive gasp and an ominous silence. Aki surfaced spluttering in the pool, and shaking the water out of his ears, realized something had happened. He scanned his immediate area first, then looked up and was aghast as he caught sight of his dripping wet man. With an “eep”, he made his way to the side of the pool as Asami started down the stairs. As Asami’s pounding feet touched the deck, his boy had fled back into the hotel, shrieking at the top of his lungs like a three year old being chased with a frog. It was later whispered by staff that the Dragon of Tokyo had caught the boy near the change rooms, hauled him into a stall, took the removable rinse shower head in hand and turned the cold water on high, then put it down the swim shorts of the hysterically laughing blond.

And that’s pretty much how the rest of the week went. The boys would head out early, have breakfast on the way to wherever they were going that day, do sightseeing and shopping, then lunch at the best food places Tao knew, from La Paloma inside a 17th century Portuguese fortress-turned-hotel that had the best view of the Macau Peninsula in town, to little mom & pop street food stands in Hong Kong near the ferry dock. By mid afternoon, they’d be back at the hotel, changed and headed up to the rooftop. The grownups would join them there soon after, relaxing and socializing as a mob or in small groups. And after the first day, everyone showed up in more casual attire.                                                                                           

Asami would look hot in a used garbage bag, but the dark slimfit chinos with the short sleeve silk shirt really was just not fair. He was sitting with Kirishima and Suoh, enjoying some drinks, not at all business-like and professional. Every now and then, one or all of them would steal a glance at their boys enjoying themselves in the last warm days before Autumn set in. At some point, they all must have gotten caught up in their talk because the next time they looked over, the pool was empty. The boys weren’t anywhere on the deck, either. In fact, Fei Long and the others had left too. Sensing something was up, Suoh and Kirishima left the table and took different routes around the pool to the stairs. Asami stood, going to look under the upper deck area, ready to call for his Akihito when he heard “All clear, Aki!” from the deck above. Stepping back out towards the pool’s edge, he was just in time to hear a loud whoop as his boy came arcing over the railing, yelling “Cannonball!” as he curled up tight, knees to chest, arms around the knees in midair, head tucked in and hit the water ass first with a resounding splash. Part of the resulting backsplash absolutely drenched Asami where he stood. The end result was once more Aki stampeding into the building, (this time laughing like a loon), with the older man in thundering pursuit. Neither one made it down to supper that night.

Day three had the blond showing up at the pool beet red, sporting assorted bite marks and hickies. All. Over. And tie burns on his wrists and ankles. And a definite aversion to sitting down. As well, Asami, it seemed, had become a bit of a pariah. People were still more than happy to interact with him, just not anywhere really close to him. After being seemingly targeted for water annihilation twice, it would be kinda like holding a lightning rod in a thunderstorm. Mikhail was the last one to join everyone on the roof. He was sporting a light linen shirt with sloppily rolled up sleeves over white speedo swim briefs that left NOTHING to the imagination once they hit the water. He made his way over to the party island once more in the pool and after a few minutes of chatting, accepted Aki’s usual seat and was handed a beer. Shortly afterwards, Tao excused himself to use the facilities. He came back grinning ear to ear, carrying a tote box full of industrial cleaning sponges. They were in all colours, shapes, sizes and thicknesses and dumped into the pool forthwith. Asses and feet were pointed skyward as several boys and one man dove for as many as they could get hold of. Once everyone surfaced with their ammo, no one was safe. Bystanders and combatants alike got thwacked with heavy sodden missiles. All except Asami. His sheer presence alone seemed to act as a force field, allowing him to coolly sip his drink as those around him fell. That is, until he suddenly felt ice cold wet masses hit him solidly in the rump and back of the head as simultaneously Yoh and Tao took flying wet sponges to the face. Knowing only one person there that had that speed, strength, stealth and deadly aim, Asami spun about and glared at Fei Long, who was sitting at a table with an ice bucket, “innocently” talking on his phone. The former assassin glanced up under the withering stare and gave a look of “what!?”, putting the final nail in his coffin. Asami marched over to him, picked up the chair Fei Long was seated in, marched back to the pool and dumped his ass in the deep end. The Triad leader bobbed to the surface moments later, silks and hair fanned out around him like some gaudy tropical fish. Tao and Yoh joined him, and the Lui brothers took years off of any possibly needed family therapy by partaking in a melee of head dunking together.

Later, after a relaxed and affable dinner as a group, the members broke up into smaller units. Mikhail, escorting Ai, went along with Asami, Kirishima, Suoh and their boys, hit the exclusive high roller casino. Kei tutored Takato in the fine art of Black Jack, Suoh introduced Kou to Roulette. And either Mikhail was divinely gifted at showing Aki around a craps table, or the boy had a few extra curricular activities along with criminal photography. Asami stood back, watching, as he brought Ai up to date on the Pack’s news back home. She, in turn, brought him up to date on Marcus’ last reported movements and who he was contacting in the shadows. What it all came down to in his mind, was that their alliance gave them the freedom to move weapons and resources from the Ural Mountains in Russia through Indonesia and Southeast Asia, into the coastal regions of China then back up north into Siberia. A large chunk of the world was cut off from Marcus’ ability to use and manipulate. Depending on where his home range was, he may even be pinned down and cut-off from resources right now.

When the boys and their tutors returned to the table, they all compared their piles of winnings, and afterwards proceeded to a private bar set aside for Fei Long’s visitors. Shortly, after a couple of rounds of fine imported beers, the social part of the even ended with Souh and Asami having a drinking contest, taking tequila body shots off of their boys’ torsos while Kei and Kou looked on as they cuddled in the booth, Ai was in the throes of a giggle fit, and Mikhail recorded the event on his phone to share with Aaron. The men at some point seemed to have stopped counting rounds and had instead started concentrating on tickling the boys with their tongues as they swept up the salt rimmer from around their belly buttons, seeing who could make their boy wriggle enough to tip off the limes lined up on their tummies.

The night ended with couples drifting off one by one. Ai and Mikhail left first, arms around each other, then Takato and Suoh wished everyone a good night and went off on their own. Asami left soon afterwards as his kitten wanted to take some pictures of the city’s lightscape from the hotel roof. After stopping to drop off their suit jackets and vests, Asami discarded his tie as Aki grabbed his camera case and off they went.

They had been on the upper deck for almost an hour when Asami’s hands started roaming over the boy’s back and sides, making gliding sweeps down to the boy’s tempting glutes. Just about when the blond had forgotten the camera in his hands, they heard hushed voices and soft steps coming from below them. Minutes later, the soft hanging lanterns came on to the the sound of the hot tub starting to bubble and heat. Murmurs and hushed laughter floated up at the sound of two bodies entering the tub. Asami raised his eyebrow at Akihito, and with a grin, both delinquents crept over to the staircase and peeked below. There was Suoh, relaxed and taking up a fair portion of the tub, and beside him was Takato, joking and… was he flirting with the big guy?! Oh ho, now this was an interesting turn of events. Looks like their “ice prince” was finally melting.

Just then, Asami touched his shoulder and pointed to a pair a stealthy shadows creeping along the wall towards the couple in the tub. The shadows stopped, looked to be fumbling about for a bit, then suddenly the cry “Fire in the hole!” rang out as small white balls were thrown into the tub. As soon as the bath bombs hit the hot roiling water, they started fizzing, the coloured powders started mixing with the liquid, and by the gods, there was glitter in the mix. A bellowing hulk clad in pink and lavender suds around his lower parts stood up in the pool, shaking a fist and cursing at the laughing shadows retreating fast back into the hotel. Sitting back down in the tub, the giant looked disgruntled as he glowered at the growing pile of bubbles, probably thinking his plans for the night ruined. Takato calmly took a heaping handful of sudsy fun and plopped some on his head, then took a double handful of mixed hues, plopped them on top of a surprised Suoh, them grabbed his phone and snapped a pic as he gave the bigger man a quick peck on the cheek. The startled look was worthy of a second pic before Takato put the phone away, presumably sat on a large, muscled thigh from his change in elevation and bumped temples with Suoh. A large hand came up around Takato’s back, and the pair shared their first of many kisses to come.

Asami and Akihito by then were already stepping inside the building. “Who’da thunk it? Glasses and Kou played a prank together, and Takato finally accepted Suoh dating him. Hell, we oughtta go on group vacations more often.” Asami was going to make a double entendre about groups that “played together”, but his wolf was bristling and snarling too loudly in his head for him to concentrate properly. Instead, he slid a large hand around his boy’s waist and pulled him in close so he could nuzzle his kitten’s neck behind his ear as he pushed the elevator button. Aki turned and crossed his wrists behind his older lover’s neck. Yes, “lover” felt right. He wanted to stay with this man, and he was going to help this friendly truce they had turn into a relationship. He was going to trust Asami did want something more than just a fling, and he was going to work on getting the man to trust in him as well. But first things first: he wanted to see the look in those sexy golden eyes when he whispered that he needed to feel those lips all over his body tonight.

From the stairwell, the fire door opened just enough to allow the phone's camera lens to clear the frame and take some photos of the handsome couple waiting for the elevator. The blond didn’t look like much from any other boy toys he’d seen outside those mens clubs when he was travelling. But, it wasn’t his to figure out Asami’s preferences. He took a second to switch to “record”, then took footage until the elevator arrived and the men disappeared inside. Allowing the door to close on its own, he turned to the other person with him and nodded. “You were right. Marcus does need to see this.”


	16. Mouth is Alive with Juices like Wine

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Wrapping up the week at the Liu's working vacation. Someone crashes the party; and more hijinks ensue around the pool.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok, I admit, I suck. I didn't make it in time for the March Blue Moon, but I have managed to post in time for my first anniversary of joining Team Wolf and iluvmyterrier's maiden story. Good, bad, or 'WTH is this crap!', it's been fun. Here's hoping iluvmyterrier's feeling better and getting stronger every day.

 

 

Day four started out with the third best synapse-numbing, sphincter-clenching, eye-crossing blowjob he’d ever had, numbers one and two having been bestowed on him during the night. His body was still humming with sparking sensations running along his nerve endings as he let his head tiredly loll over to the side, watching as Asami lit up a cigarette in bed beside him. The bigger man looked him over with immense satisfaction, knowing that every time they were intimate, or he introduced his boy to a new sensual vice, it would tie them tighter together, which both Alphas took a great deal of pride in.

‘ _Do you think he can walk yet, Baka?’_

‘ _Walk…, no. Stagger; maybe. In a straight line? Not likely.’_

_‘Poor boy seems like he doesn’t know what hit him.’_

_‘Who knew? To keep him quiet, contented, and in one spot, just blow him a couple of times a day. Simple.’_

The wolf snickered. ‘ _Oi, what do you think he’d do if he thought he was going to get blown again right now?’_

Asami mentally snicketed back. ‘ _Spontaneously combust into a pile of whimpering ashes.’_

Stubbing out his smoke in the ashtray, he rolled over onto his side with an expectant, lusty leer on his face as his wolf chortled wickedly in his head and licked his lips. After a glance the blond somehow managed to summon up a tint of a blush as well as the strength and steadiness to hold up an warning finger in his lover’s direction. “Listen, you pervert you, what you did to me last night’s turned me into a real animal in bed.” Amused, Asami rested his head in his hand as he lazed there, lightly running a finger down his boy’s neck to his chest, then slowly circled down his firm belly to his thigh, finally licking Aki’s sweat off his finger tip, both ‘wolves’ savouring the salty sweetness of their mate.

Feigning disinterest, they both waited, wanting to hear this one. “Indeed. And how’s that, kitten?”

“Well, first off, I’m going to sleep for the next twelve hours. Then, I’ll let you to rub my tummy before you bring me some food.” Man and wolf snorted. Rolling off the bed he sat up, partially facing the blond in profile, bathed in streams of morning light through the shades, the shadows and highlights on Asami’s muscular body doing nothing but good things to Akihito’s insides, making him wish he had his phone handy to capture it. Asami, watching his face, made an intuitive leap. “What, do you like this kind of lighting for photographing nudes?”

Aki gave him a sour look and grunted. “Not model nudes, just you. I know, I know,” he held up a hand before the bigger man could speak. “You don’t like photos. I get it. Never mind.” He snuggled back down into his pillow with a saucy little smirk of his own. “Bad memories from an unflattering photo shoot in a cop shop at some point in your past?” With a chuckle, Asami turned, reached for the phone on his bedside table, and after unlocking it and bringing up the camera feature, moved back to his boy and offered it to him.

Not asking any questions, Aki sat up and took advantage of the situation, taking several shots of his man before moving over to sit against his larger torso and switching cameras to selfie mode while the fixer slid an arm around his waist and settled his chin on top of the blond bed head. Pressing the button twice, he then settled in to fiddle with the photo features on the phone while resting against the warm (and smokin’ hot!) body behind him. After a few minutes of muttering and nimble fingers doing things neither Alpha knew could be done with the phone, Aki presented it back to its owner with a new file on it. Pressing the icon, Ryuichi and company saw the raw photos in slide show, then with the black and white filter, followed by the sepia tone filtered pics, ending with the cropped finished shots in a combo of natural lighting and both filters. Wolf and human were caught by a pair of photos: one black and white of the man and boy together, mussed up, comfortable and happy, enjoying being skin to skin. The other was a cropped-in sepia tone of a few dark bangs hanging down over the barest sliver of smooth forehead with a refined eyebrow, and a chiseled cheek, sloping down to a firm chin. Further down the photo was a wedge of muscular shoulder, arm and chest supported by a healthy slice of abdominals. What made the picture different, however, was the fact that the whole screen looked like it was off centre, and had been tilted down and to the right, giving the impression that the person being photographed was above the camera’s point of view, leaning slightly over the photographer as if the picture had been taken facing upwards while the photographer was lying on his back. “A few more shots like that, and I could take my portrait portfolio pro”, the boy sighed, carefully trying not to catch a peek of Asami’s reaction.

“Well then”, the man’s voice rumbled through Aki’s back, “this will be an auspicious start for a new side of your career then. Take this one for your portfolio, and I’ll even allow you to make a few copies to drool over when I’m not available. This one of us, however, I’m getting enlarged and keeping it on my home office desk.” Maybe it was his empty stomach and low blood sugar, but that statement had little flutterbies squiggling about in his belly. He tried to ignore his habitual suspicion of anything good that happened, reassuring himself that Asami had been doing too much for too long for him and his friends, just so he and his bunch could get laid. Untapped legal ass might be rare, but it wasn’t that hard to find if that’s what somebody really wanted. A large finger tapped him on his forehead, snapping that thread.

Blinking, the blond focused on the handsome face crouched down in front of him, a warm fondness in those golden eyes. “You still with me, kitten?” Snapping his teeth at the finger that was quickly drawn back, Aki got snarky. “Yeah, yeah. Go do your final meeting thingie while I go back to bed. To sleep. Alone. Unmolested. For hours. Pervert.” Stern blue-green eyes glared up in menace as a little lower, soft lips twitched, trying not to slip into their default setting of a grin. Asami pressed a quick kiss to them then got up and strode his manly ass to the shower room.

“Get some rest, but remember to be ready for an early dinner on the roof deck. Mikhail and the Russians are leaving this evening, and we head home tomorrow night. This will be our last visit with the Liu brothers for a while. Enjoy your time here, Akihito; you boys are going to be busy when we get back home.”

“Home, huh. ‘Home’, as in Tokyo, or ‘home’ as in you to your ivory tower penthouse and me safely shut up, studying your Sion culture, quietly outta the way back at the compound.” Asami stopped at the door, and gave his boy a scorching look up and down that should have, by rights, charred the bedsheets around him. “I mean ‘home’, as in wherever we lay down for the night. Together.”, before he exited the room, leaving Aki to swoon back onto his pillow, too warm and tingly to even wonder if Asami wanted a thorough scrubbing, and too tired to bring himself to offer to give him a hand. By the time the crime lord came back into the room, a towel about his neck and one slung low around his hips, the blond was snoring softly, drooling on one of Asami’s king-sized pillows that he had completely enveloped, and looked to be in the the process of trying to absorb it, like a human starfish.

 

*****

 

Several hours later, the final “t” was dotted, the last “i” had been crossed, and the first rounds of vodka and champagne had been hoisted and downed. The chairs had been pushed under the table, and easy banter drifted about the room as different individuals drifted to and fro between groups. The three leaders and their various admin assistants and security team leads were talking, making arrangements and plans while the alcohol floated about.

Asami had replaced his phone in his vest pocket for the second time after receiving another threatening text from Akihito about how, if they all didn’t get their asses together and wrap it up soon, he was going to take matters into his own hands. He was just going to make his way over to the Fei Long, Mikhail and Yoh cluster to suggest they move the party elsewhere for all their sakes when Ai stepped away to answer her phone. He saw an odd look flow across her face before she went all professional mode and sought out her pack leader. The tall yakuza stopped, attention focused on his friend and his former pack member as both Kei and Suoh seemed to tune into their Alpha and swivelled their heads in his direction. Tao broke off from talking with one of the Russians and excused himself, making his way towards his brothers. That sent a vibe throughout the room as the chatter died down and attention was directed to the various Alphas. After speaking to Ai, Fei Long’s easy stance changed, and as he looked up, he sent a look to both of his allied guests. Mikhail and Asami were heading back to their seats with their Betas on the move as their subordinates efficiently scrambled to get back to their places.

Once everyone was seated, Fei Long nodded to Ai, and the room’s attention fell on her. Ai started to speak as she made eye contact with each pack leader. “We’ve received a message that a video conference has been confirmed for this time and date and is registered for this room’s equipment. All that’s needed is to sign onto the server and see who’s giving us a call.” She hooked her thumb over her shoulder at the HD wall monitor before leaning over the keypad on the conference table to start typing. A moment later she walked over to push the power button on the screen. As it came on, a slightly larger than life partly mangled face came into view. _Marcus_.

No one in the room stirred as the smug man facing them from the monitor addressed the room: “Gentlemen. Good to see you all again. I suppose you’re wondering why I’ve gathered you all here today…”, he stopped, as if waiting to gauge the reaction of his audience. When he didn’t get any, he shifted in his seat and continued. “I’ve given you all time to consider my proposal and let all you ‘cool kids’ meet up after school in your little clubhouse to discuss what you want to do. So then: are you with me, or against me.” The Baishe Alphas all gave him looks ranging from Fei Long’s sheer and utter disdain to Tao’s clear desire to claw his other eyeball out of his head. Asami directed a withering sneer at Marcus strong enough to have shattered the t.v. screen, and Mikhail elegantly raised his iced shot glass, trickled out the vodka it held onto the table top, than carefully set the empty glass upside down and crushed it with his palm. Marcus went pale with rage at the silent insults offered in answer to his power play. If he was going for the intimidation factor with this audience, he was barking up the wroonngggg tree.

He'd clouded up like a thunderhead, building up to what no doubt would be some great vindictive tantrum, when the doors to the room burst open and Asami’s own sassy little ray of sarcastic sunshine stood there at the threshold, bold as brass and kinda pissy. Marcus’ eye bulged, as did several blood vessels on his forehead at the rude intrusion. The Alphas in the room, less than terrified of the theatrics on the screen, turned towards what promised to be a more entertaining diversion, ignoring the self-styled wannabe ‘heavy’ behind them.

“Asami. What. The hell. You wanted me to be ready for an early dinner, so I was. We all were. Yet here you and your play dates are, just hanging out, making people wait. Some of us haven’t eaten since breakfast. SOME of us were so exhausted, they slept THROUGH  breakfast. You guys have been in here so long, the servers have already gone back with the food back to the kitchen. Dinner’s going to be another hour or so. We’ve gone through a round of drinks by the pool waiting on your asses. Maybe two rounds. Maybe more. Listen, da fuq you pricks playing at?! If you’re having a dick measuring contest for shits ‘n’ giggles, people. are. starving. Namely me. So: shift it!” Chuckles spread around the table along with a smattering of applause. Asami leaned back in his chair and gave him an amused look, holding up a placating hand. “Now, kitten…”

Before either man could continue, another voice broke in. “Kitten, hmm? Asami, have you been holding out on me? Whom might this tasty little blond be?” Startled hazel eyes looked up at the screen as Asami growled low in his throat at the interruption. Once again, before he could get a word in edgewise, or even turn to start intimidating the would-be world changer, Aki bulldozed on in, hands on hips. “Asami-sama,” he glared at his man as others winced and thought ‘aw, shit’, “is that the dick from the docks? Really, that’s what you’ve been wasting precious eating time with? Huh, I thought you had class. And you,” he regarded the clawed face on the screen. “What are you wasting everybody’s time for? Are you still on that crap about taking out humanity or something? There’s too many of us, Scareface. There’s almost a billion and a half people in China alone, and I’m pretty damn sure not a single one of them is shitting bricks over your dastardly evil plans, dude. Fuck off.” Now Marcus was really getting upset. Being dismissed by his fellow Alphas was one thing, but being snapped at by a mere slip of an Upright?! He opened his mouth again, but Aki pulled a Dr. Evil and gave him a preemptive shush. “Can it with the Villain’s Monologue and listen, dickhead. I heard you ask Asami to save a piece of me for a taste, so here I am. Anytime you want to, you can just walk your ass-face over here and try this piece right here." The boy twisted partly away from the screen, presenting one of his ass cheeks to the screen. Giving it a meaty smack with his hand, he gave a middle finger salute to The Evildoer with a “suck it, bitch” before walking over to a side table, picking up the t.v. remote control and hitting the ‘off’ button. The screen went black, and Ai clicked the ‘cancel’ option with the mouse. Tossing the remote back onto the table, Aki looked up to see the surprised looks and wide eyes of the lower ranked individuals around the table. “Now. Get up to your rooms, get ready for dinner, and get up to the roof, got it?” Singling out his man for a particularly frosty glare, the blond left the conference room, shaking his head and muttering “…crazy-ass rich people, can’t even turn off a t.v. on their own…” before disappearing down the hallway.

 

About an hour later, a casually (for him) dressed Asami and a somewhat sober Akihito stepped out onto the roof, skirted the pool and went up the stairs to the roof deck. As the blond made his appearance, he was greeted by a standing ovation. Turning a rather attractive shade of pink, he nodded to his fans and moved over to Tao, Kou and Takato, all of whom were whistling and carrying on the loudest. Asami was congratulated on finding such a feisty little shit to call his own, even as Aki started to get a twinge of unease. Looking around, he didn’t see anything out of place, just some servers circulating with trays of drinks and another employee tending bar. Still, something didn’t quite feel right… Minutes later, Aki was getting distracted by how the hairs on the back of his neck were standing up. More servers were showing up and setting out places on the main table as a serving table was being set up across from the bar with chafing dishes, warming trays and heat lamps. Watching the increasing number of servers milling about, setting up a third table (judging by the ice in the trays) for the salad and appetizer courses, he was getting a definite bad vibe. Maintaining his rapid-fire conversation with his bros, he kept glancing at Asami, wondering if it was all in his mind if the dangerous survivor of many double-crosses and ambushes, both inside and out of the boardroom, didn’t seem to sense anything. Biting his bottom lip, he wondered if he should mention his tingling spider-senses to anyone on the Sion crew. But again, because no one else in the group was showing any disquiet, he let it slide.

But as the serving carts were being prepped and large trays of chilled water carafes were carried up the stairway, his nerves were really starting to twitch. Any unexpected noise made him jump, and all the activity by outsiders so close to the people he had become comfortable being around made his guts twist. He almost felt like pacing, which only happened when he was working a stakeout, and he knew a situation was starting to go south fast, and he needed to get out NOW. Or, if he was feeling really icky and getting ready to puke. Ruling out a sudden stomach bug or massive hangover of some kind, he knew something wasn’t right, but what could he do? He was just about ready to take Tao aside with his concern when the serving crew’s supervisor approached Fei Long and bowed respectfully. A minute later, a calmly smiling Baishe leader called for his guests’ attention and invited them to take a seat at the main table as dinner would commence shortly. Even more edgy now, Akihito waited for Asami to come over before he went near the table, taking hold of his bare arm below the short sleeve linen shirt his man was in. Barely taking notice of his boy, the crime lord continued talking to Suoh and Mikhail’s Second as he made his way to the table. When the Russian finished talking and headed over to his boss’ side of the seating, Aki turned to speak to his man. Asami, however, still conversing with his security chief, detached his arm from the blond and pulled out a chair for him to sit on. Akihito hesitated, caught on the horns of a dilemma. Asami wasn’t paying attention to him, and not knowing what the men were talking about, he didn’t want to interrupt something important with what was a case of jittery nerves.

Finally giving up for the moment, he sat down and let Asami push his chair in to the table as he continued talking to his man. Instead, the boy watched a pair of waiters circle the table, one turning each diner’s desired wine glass over as the other poured red or white wine into the glass behind them. Suoh left to take his seat by Takato, Kirishima and Kou. Just as Aki was going to take his chance to speak up, he caught sight of Fei Long taking hold of his wine glass and prepare to get up for a speech. But before he could, a still standing Asami took hold of his white wine glass, turned it over and held it out to the wine server to fill. Turning back to the table with his glass, he stayed upright as he prepared to offer his own toast. This change in protocol even seemed to catch the servers by surprise, as six of them, with a water carafe in each hand, halted between and slightly behind the remaining seated guests. Instead of setting the carafes down for each guest to use as they would, they delayed, not wanting to interrupt the speaker. Asami waited until he had everyone’s attention, even as Aki’s nerves stretched even further, before he began speaking: “I just wanted to take this moment to thank our gracious hosts for the most productive, satisfactorily concluded, and ultimately relaxing, working vacation I’m sure any of us here have ever enjoyed. In between business, we’ve had time to make connections and strike up new acquaintances. I would like to thank Tao for not only shouldering negotiations for rebuilding and strengthening his family territory in Hanoi, but also undertaking to entertain our personal guests. I’d also like to thank Yoh for assuming command of our safety here, and coordinating seamlessly with our groups’ security teams as well. And to our host, Fei Long, for providing impeccable accommodations, superb service, amazing dining and amusing entertainments, even though I suspect I’d been shanghaied into being the unsuspecting stooge in a few cases.” Chuckles and laughter greeted that remark. “Therefore, I’d like to propose a toast to our hosts, and a thought to keep in mind for all the members of this alliance: wherever you go, and whatever plans you concoct, remember that I, am Asami fucking Ryuichi.”

As his lover spoke those words, Akihito clearly heard a low gruff voice inside his head order “Go!”, and without thinking, he slid out of his chair and under the table as the waiting servers all stepped forward at the same time and dumped the contents of the water carafes onto their assigned clients laps. Without stopping, he partially spun around then dove between the chairs of the shocked guests and through a server’s legs and bolted towards the stairway. He caught a glance of a grinning Asami turn his way as chaos reigned at the party. As he hit the stairs, he knew Asami was coming after him, and he needed to buy some seconds or the bigger man would catch him before he made the doors and gods knew what he’d do to him. Feinting to his right on the last few steps as if angling for the rooftop doors, he took off to the left instead, making tracks along the outside length of the pool even as his lover had anticipated him heading for the escape route and had leapt over the railing to cut him, only to find himself left behind. Grinning wider in anticipation of trapping their little lover along the balcony railing, both Alphas eagerly took off in hot pursuit. As he was heading for the railing corner at the end of the pool, Aki hoped the bistro table there was as sturdy as he thought it was. As he felt his lover closing in on him, he leaped up toward the tabletop, bringing his legs up as if he was jumping against a wall, and pushed off the rim of the cast iron table with his feet, stretching and twisting around laterally in midair, just making it into the deep end of the pool. His shallow dive carried him to about a third of the way back down when he felt something big jump into the water after him. Aki started swimming desperately for the end of the pool now, knowing that he swam like a seal, but even seals got the fuck outta the water when an orca was on their tail. Gaining the shallow end, he abandoned the pool steps to get up over to the edge and pushed off from the bottom of the pool, getting out just ahead of a large grasping hand aiming for his ankle. He threw himself at the doors, and slid inside on the smooth floor, and catching sight of a pile of fluffy folded towels and bath robes, he grabbed the first robe on top, shook it out in one snap and yanked the belt out of it. He made a quick loop knot around the door handles, just in time to look up into the looming, dripping face of Asami Ryuichi. And by all that’s unholy, if there ever was an image of a hungry, aroused, soaking wet big bad wolf, Ryuichi was it; and his kitten was a medium-rare prime rib roast dinner. Both of them stared at each other for a minute, lost in what each of them was seeing. The spell was broken a moment later, when the wet, rowdy crowd above them started making their way down the stairs. Asami looked away, and smiled, pleased with the results of his plotting. He looked back at Aki, and the pair of them called a silent timeout as the boy released the doors and handed out the towels and robes as Asami held the door open and accepted congratulations on his prank, along with a few good natured comments, like “asshole!”.

And while the other guys dried off and got comfy in their robes, Aki and Asami rinsed off the chlorine from the pool together to their own hot little make out session in the showers, which had nothing to do with using all the heated water in the building the steam up the room. Later, after all of Asami’s serving henchmen had disappeared, a fine meal was enjoyed on the deck, a spectacular dessert was demolished, and wine was free-flowing. As the Russian delegations departure time drew near and the sun was headed down, Akihito gave some tips and tricks to one of the guards on how to take crowd scenes on his phone’s camera, and after the man climbed onto a chair for added height, Mikhail and friends departed with a group photo of everyone toasting with their drinks as they sat on or knelt down among chairs in their monogrammed hotel robes, surely one of the most memorable councils of war ever held in the annuals of the werewolf underground.

 

Aki and Asami’s final night in Baishe territory passed as their other nights had, languidly running their hands over each other’s bodies after their initial passionate collision. Asami had been sending him sexy looks all through dinner, brushing his leg against his boy’s under the table, and after the meal, having some body part of his in contact at all times. Now, after the driving need to bring each other to utter completion had been met, they were catching their breaths, Aki lazily draped face down over top Asami like a wrung out rag. Murmuring softly to his dozing boy, he enjoyed taking deep inhales of his kitten’s hair, the scent wafting about in the Alphas’ sinuses giving them both a pheromone high. As he trailed his fingers over his boy’s smooth skin, eliciting tiny tremors and twitches, he knew a deep satisfaction. Anonymous sex and short term flings, while enjoyable distractions, didn’t hold a candle to this feeling that Akihito had kindled in him. He knew it wasn’t blind love or an unquestionable crush, but it was a more than enough to ensure his growing fondness for his little blond, replacing his wandering eye for any others, and to make his kitten’s happiness a priority. His wolf was all but bonded with this boy’s other half, and they were both eager to consummate this relationship. All that held them back was final understanding and acceptance by Akihito. Ah, but the torture of waiting. A sweet, frustrating test of their self control, with their little one, right here at hand, so supple and pliable and hot pressed against them. And ahh, the temptation… To just touch him some more, press his defences a bit, to take just a few more liberties with that body of his... As Asami shifted underneath their adorable little menace, they both noticed something. “Kitten,” he purred in Aki’s ear while the wolf rumbled deep in his chest with delight. “Hey, sleepy head.” A previously comfortably floating boy grumbled as one eyeball peeled slightly open. “Hey, little one. I hate to disturb your beauty rest, but I think we need to talk. Something seems to have come up between us.”

Aki’s eye flew open, then slammed shut as a dusky pink swept along his cheek. Pulling his hands up to Asami’s chest, he tried to push himself up slightly so he could turn his face away from the knowing smirk he just knew was on his man’s face, but only succeeded in rubbing his aroused Mr. Happy against a bunch of stomach muscles and making himself groan. That definitely caught his crime lord’s attention. Putting an arm around his blond’s body to keep him in place, his flexed his abs as he did a half sit-up to adjust his pillows and himself up further on the headboard, while Aki snuck in a few more grinds against his body. With his man reclining in semi repose, Aki put his legs down on either side above Asami’s hips and pushed himself up, letting his more than interested sex trail over his man’s stomach and the ridge of muscle to his Adonis belt region. Tilting his hips as he drew his knees up to give his boy something to brace against, he felt his own hard cock nestle into his boy’s cleft between his sweet firm cheeks, sliding as Aki moved. The friction along his shaft was as divine as the sight of his kitten frotting him, rubbing the underside of his hardon along the dips and mounds of muscles and tendons, lubricated by his own pre cum and Asami’s sweat, writhing and panting as he strained to get more stimulation. The bigger man took over, his large hands cupping and massaging the boy’s asscheeks tighter around his cock as his thumbs caught hold of the boy’s hipbones, sliding Akihito up and down harder and faster than on his own. There was a gasp and a deeper groan in answer as the rim of Akihito’s puckered entrance kept catching the edge of his penile head. One of the blond’s hands slid down to grasp himself, trying to make himself cum. Asami pulled him up his body, not paying any mind to the boy’s negligible weight on his chest. Because this one would be his. He’d overcome any doubts or fears, he’d wear down any objections, he’d be there when Akihito needed him, and this clever mind, the fighting spirit and that sexy little body would be all his. This line of thought roused him even more, and after catching Aki’s cock with his mouth, he added teeth and tongue to his repertoire as he increased the suction on his boy’s member. One of his fingers slipped in between those delectable asscheeks, and once he started rubbing and teasing the boy’s pucker, Akihito shook apart in Asami’s hands as he came down his throat. As his boy crumpled and slumped back, he took himself in hand, and after several rough, quick twisting strokes, he came over his boy’s ass.

 

******

 

Aki was almost late for his post breakfast appointment to take Fei Long’s portrait. He just made it outside the hall doors five minutes to the hour, just barely on time by Japanese punctuality. As leader of the Baishe, Liu Fei Long could keep him waiting as long as he wanted. As a guest just one story below, however, citing Asami’s “delaying tactics”, including driving the blond so wild that he clawed the bigger man’s back and shoulders as an excuse, probably wouldn’t fly. Having the Russians leave the night before, after a successful, incident-free week, seemed to have left everybody behind in a more relaxed mood, as even the guards outside the waiting room with him were relaxed and nodded in welcome when he showed up. By the time the mantle clock on the antique hall table struck the hour, Po had opened the grand doors and escorted the blond through a shortcut to the audience hall. His hazel eyes almost popped outta his head with the studio setup Fei Long had provided. Shee-it, if this is what he got to work with, maybe he shoulda let Fei Long have at him! Fuck, well over a year of his old rent AT LEAST was standing here, waiting for him to play with it.

Speaking of waiting, Fei Long was standing nearby, refilling his vaping rig with that quiet smile on his face. Tao had said he was an extravagant host, but damn. This was too much. What the hell was the man going to do with all this stuff when they were done? Once Aki got set up, played with the room lighting, then with the lighting rigs, then figured out where he wanted to photograph his host, the other two brothers had stopped in. Which, of course, lead to a ‘way easygoing atmosphere. If they’d started doing each other’s nails, served colourful frozen mocktails and had a pillow fight, the blond wouldn’t been surprised. But he wasn’t complaining, everyone was chill, mostly not paying any attention to him moving about and snapping pics of the trio, together and by themselves. In fact, once he was done and had brought up the photos on his laptop, they all agreed on their favourites pretty quick. Yoh’s picture was all monochrome grey tones. He was standing, relaxed and confident in his unbuttoned suit jacket, phone to his ear, eyes on the far end of the hall but his body showed awareness of the camera pointed at him. Tao had brought a Havana hat which complimented his outfit, and he had been twirling it one handed throughout the shoot. Aki caught one particular shot of Tao balancing his hat by its rim on his finger tip, partially covering his face but still showing one of his eyes, bright with laughter, and a sunny grin.

With Fei Long’s, though, there was a split opinion. The Baishe leader and Tao preferred a black and white filtered picture that was slightly grainy. He was sitting beneath the Serpent on the wall, cool like stone statue, but his loose hair flowing over his shoulder and the swirling vapour suggested movement in the photo, as if the large wall plaque had breathed a plume of smoke around the Triad leader. Aki and Yoh, on the other hand, liked a colour shot of the mass of blue-black hair, hanging in tendrils over and around his face. It looked like a classic study of female hair, until the eye was caught by a part in the hair that revealed the attractive masculine face.

One they unanimously agreed on was an informal pic of the brothers seated together on a couch. No special lighting, no props, no backgrounds, just the three of them, hanging out together. Tao had hung his suit jacket over the back corner of the couch and was leaning forward, looking at both brothers and smiling with a hand on the cushion beside Fei Long’s thigh. The oldest of the trio sat with his long legs crossed, holding his vaping rig pipe casually in one hand, casually talking with their baby brother. Yoh was on the far end, turned towards the other two: cigarette in his fingers, arm along the back of the couch, relaxed but still watching over them both. Then Aki made a suggestion and showed them the same photo, but divided into three panels: each of them as an independent person, but still connected by being a part each other’s picture. They all wanted a copy of that one, and insisted the boy put his digital signature on all the photos they wanted before he sent them off to each of the brothers. His final suggestion as he put his camera away was to have the enlargements gallery wrapped instead of framed, letting them blend in with most décor while allowing them to stand out, away from the flat background of the wall.

 

After lunch, the boys were having their farewell party on the inflatable island before they headed off to change and finish packing for home. They’d all have one final lite meal together before they left for the airport, and they were all getting in the very last dregs of their vacation. None of them would be having much free time to enjoy for a while. About the time the last beer was laid to rest, Asami and his Betas came to collect their boys. Kou, of course, was off the island and headed poolside to greet Kei with a big smile as soon as he caught sight of him. Takato, while nodding to Kazumi, made sure he didn’t move an inch until he was ready to go. And Akihito? Well, he made sure he stressed to everybody that Asami was not the boss of him by hanging out on the island long after those golden eyes had narrowed, unamused, as the temperature above the water seemed to grow cooler by the second. Just before a sheet of ice was ready to form over the pool surface, Aki rolled off the island and waded his way towards his imposing man. Just as he reached the side of the pool, Asami reached down to offer him his hand. Trying to get back at the crime lord for causing him to freak out the night before with his attempt to dowse him along with everyone else, Aki was about to kick off the bottom of the pool, brace his feet against the side, and see if he could pull Asami fucking Ryuichi off balance and into the pool. But no sooner had he grasped the fixer then Ryuichi engulfed his hand with his bigger one, and standing up, simply lifted straight up and had his boy dangling by his arm like a fish on a line. Swinging the blond around at arm’s length, he set Akihito down on his feet, steered him towards the doors, and sent him on his way with a swat to his arse. Playtime was apparently over, for now.

 

That evening, flying towards the gibbous moon rising over Japan, the men were gathered in the sitting area, going over their impressions of the week and what all had been accomplished with the Baishe and Arbatov packs. The boys, tired but still buzzing from the trip, were slowly winding down. Sharing pics back and forth on their phones, they relived some of their favourite times in Macau and Hong Kong, their impressions of the Chinese cities, and their eagerness to travel again, once they’d all recovered. Before they decided their menfolk had had enough time talking shop and went to sit with them, though, Aki invited them over to his place back at the Sion compound for snacks and a special entertainment in a day or so. Before they’d left on the trip, the blond had received the special package he’d ordered over the internet and decided to test it out while they were away. He’d gotten a mini surveillance camera that had been wirelessly transmitting images to his tablet in his bedroom. And since the camera was hidden in the men’s security locker room, there was surely going to be some great blackmail material to go through.

 

~TBC~


	17. Burning the Ground, I Break From the Crowd

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Aki and the boys learn Sion's deepest, darkest lycanthropic (werewolf) secret: all the senior heads of the company have supernatural fleas. Ok, here it is, for all you readers who've been looking forward to this painful, dramatic revelation (you sick, twisted bastards, you)...
> 
> \-----------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> Alright, I'm a bad, bad l'il writer for leaving you all hanging for four months. I'm sorry, that damned RL crap got in the way again. Final projects for college, exams, graduation (a two year course in under eleven month, yo!), heavy rainfalls, a minor earthquake (no damage), dangerously high humidity, a drought, a forest fire breaking out less than an hour away from home, and brain gnawing migraines due to job hunting. But screw it, here's what you've all been waiting for...

 

 

“What. The hairy-ass. Fuck.”

Takato and Kou had been repeating the same sentiment, using different inflections, stresses different words, as well as both their ‘inside’ voices and not, for the past hour and a half. The initial shock and disbelief, however, still hadn't passed.

They had dropped by Aki’s apartment as planned, their grownup men having grownup things to discuss over grownup drinks and cigars in Asami’s grownup office. They, on the other hand, had planned a boys night in, with beer, snacks and movies on the menu. For shits ‘n’ giggles, the blond had uploaded the wireless camera data to his laptop, then transferred it to the smart tv in his living room, sure that watching a bunch of big bad “no funny business” security guys letting their hair and guard down in a shower room after their work shift would provide some decent material for a “gag reel” type presentation to Suoh.

Any initial thoughts of demoing the new tech to Sion’s head of security went straight out the window, though, when, about ten minutes into to the all-male strip review, the 'audience' already whistling and calling out “Take it off! Take it allll off!”, when they were abruptly choked off when one of the naked guards bent forward like he was doing a yoga stretch by touching the floor in front of his toes, just to continue the movement forward and down in a fluid motion, ending up as a larger furry canine on all fours… with a TAIL. And then another guard did it, too. And another. Whaaa…?! The silence in the room was deafening. If one of the pieces of sushi had partly unrolled itself on the way to somebody’s mouth and smacked them in the face in self defence, it wouldn’t have been more astonishing. But then, to add injury to insult, one of the ever present patrol dogs nosed the hallway door open, jogged into the centre of the screen and pushed off with its front legs like it was going to jump up on someone, just to smoothly transition upright into a naked standing man, sans fur or extra appendage in back. And the maddening thing was, NOBODY IN THE ROOM PAID ANY ATTENTION TO THIS. Not a blink, not a double-take, not a “da fuq!?!” anywhere. Nothing. Like this was NORMAL. Nobody gave a shit. Dudes in a shower/locker room, in various states of undress. And transitions, from hairy animal to smooth-skinned human. Someone walks in, all furry ‘n’ on all fours, then leaves dressed in a suit and shoes on a pair of legs.

Takato and Kou started babbling right about data loop #10, trying to wrap their minds around this. Because, they agreed, this was not right. This, was something not normal. This was, in fact, definitely freakin’ outrageous. Food was forgotten as beers were slammed back, because THIS SHIT, RIGHT HERE, called for heavy-duty brain lubricant. After a couple of bottles each, ideas started flying about. And the more bottles were opened, the more outlandish some of those ideas got. By the time Takato proposed going to his old college, breaking into one of the computer animation labs, “borrowing” some programs and going through the data frame by frame, analyzing it pixel by pixel for any image tampering or CGI effects, Akihito finally snapped out of his self-imposed cocoon. His excitable, curious to a fault ‘what if?’ side had shut down, just leaving his jaw swinging in the breeze in bewilderment. Because Aki was a horror movie freak, without equal. Loved the genre, the gruesome, graphic scenes, the building suspense, the sudden, stupid ‘surprise!’ gags that made him jump in his seat. He loved trying to figure out which character was going to get shredded next, everything about them. Everything, that is, except werewolf movies.

He detested them. Everything about them was fake. And therefore, impossible. And, annoying. They was wrong, they was dumb, they offended his sensibilities, and to him, they was a huge waste of time. But not this. Some part of him was eyeing this coolly, critically, and somehow, approvingly. This seemed natural. It was done without thought and with unparalleled ease. No muscles jumping or contorting, no misshaped bodies stretching or compacting into grotesque, unnatural forms, no endless, pain-filled minutes of screaming torture as features distorted and rearranged themselves. No two-legged, mindless, slavering beasts. This seemed perfectly… legit. Unpretentious. Organic. Like how something like this change would happen out in the wild, where anything but a quick, seamless transference would leave the transmogrifying hybrid vulnerable during all that fake changing. Or some dark, abandoned alleyway or subway station in the city, which could be even more dangerous. Or… or even on an empty rooftop, down by the docks...

Launching himself out of his seat, the blond had a bitter taste in his mouth that seemed like betrayal. How. Could they. How could they keep something like this quiet. How could the bunch of them hide this. How could everybody here lull him into such a false sense of security. How could he have fallen for their bullshit, hook, line and sinker. And how could he have betrayed him. Dammit, how could HE…? How had Asami wormed his way past all his  considerable defences, made him have feelings for the cold prick. And how had he managed to get inside, make him care, make it hurt so bad at the thought of leaving.

Angrily choking on something suspiciously like a sob, Aki went to grab his travel and camera bags, putting in some clothes and necessities, getting ready to bail even as Lush 1 and Lush 2 were still trying to drink themselves into a comprehensive oblivion. In the past, in a pinch, they’d shared the same clothes, and they could do it again. They’d leave their phones and tech here. He’d memorized Tao’s number, so getting in touch wouldn’t be a prob… Shit. Did the older Liu brothers know about this? Did Tao know? Were the Lius a part of this too? Dammit, what about the Russians. Who did they know now that he was positive wasn’t involved with any of this, and not already in his living room. Stopping to think the dilemma through on the corner of his bed, he came to realize that they couldn’t endanger any acquaintances or colleagues from the past, and they couldn’t trust anyone they knew here, now. They were on their own. And they had to leave, and disappear. And avoid some of the best spy and surveillance networks in three countries… Fuck, fuck, FUCK!!!

Ok, ok, deep breath, Aki, calm down, and think: how can he protect Kou and Takato. If he disappeared, or was disposed of, how could they still be safe. Ok, they were blind, stinkin’ drunk, and could probably be convinced with whatever brain cells survived the night that this was all just a major hangover combined with really freaky next gen movie FX shit, creating false, confused, alcohol-induced memories of what they actually saw. Kou would buy that, no prob. Takato would shelve it ‘til later, wanting to find him first and foremost, they both would. With or without Suoh’s help, they wouldn’t give up. That may cause problems for the couples the longer he stayed missing, but they’d have to figure it out for themselves. Kou would probably believe whatever Glasses would tell him, as long as it looked like they were seriously searching for him. Which, they no doubt would be. With something this huge, they probably wouldn’t stop looking for him. He now knew a bunch of the real Sion’s secrets, and couldn’t be just left in the wind.

And Asami… Asami would be furious. Never mind all the precautions he’d taken to keep this masquerade up, never mind the subterfuge and meticulous planning involved. Asami did want him, had wanted him to stay, (that much he acknowledged), had put in a lot of effort and had invested a bunch of time and resources into making him want to stay too. He needed to run right now, get away, disappear into the night, but still…

The blond sighed, realizing he was an idiot; but a part of him wanted to give his Asami a chance to explain this all away as a minutely detailed, fucked up prank of some kind. Finally making up his mind, Aki stood and walked over to his desk drawer, retrieved an empty data stick, and headed back into the living room. Turning off the tv, Aki copied the data file onto the stick, then spared a moment to watch his totally blotted bros do some kind of seated interpretive dance, sloshing beer around with their drunkenly dramatic gestures that punctuated their garbled discussion. Hoisting his bags over his shoulder, he turned and left his apartment before he couldn’t make himself leave any more.

 

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Letting the door close quietly behind him, Aki turned up the hallway towards the elevators and saw Tadao casually leaning against the wall. Of course, his buddy Tadao was likely one of them, so either he was here tonight as a guardian angel, or a prison guard; now, just flat out not to be trusted, whichever the case may be. Walking up to the smiling young man damn near made the photographer piss himself, but he slapped on a happy face and stopped to chat a second as if his world hadn’t just shattered and he couldn’t still hear the pieces clattering to the ground.

“Hey, what, did you pissed off Suoh since he got back and got stuck babysitting the hallway or somethin’?” Akihito greeted, trying for 'normal' in front of the unnatural thing before him.

“Nah, just my evening shift, making sure you guys don’t run out of goodies or get so drunk you drown in your own puke or spit, I guess.”

“Well, I’m good, thanks, just on my way up to the Big Man’s office with pics an’ stuff from the trip. Takato and Kou might need some minding, though. They’re pretty much wasted in my living room. Probably snoring so badly by now they might swallow their tongues.”

Tadao hmm’d as he eyed the apartment doorway. “Think they need me in there?”

“Doubt it. Maybe just open the door and stay by it until I get back?”

“Sure. Got your badge on ya?” Hazel eyes popped as his hand flew up to his neck, feeling for a lanyard that wasn’t there.

“Shit. Better go back through the Kingdom of Lost Souls and get it…” Tadao grunted, then pulled his swipe card clip reel off of his belt and handed it to the photographer as he pressed the ‘up’ button beside the far elevator. Once the door slid open, Aki beeped the card on the scanner and held the door open as he thanked his pal.

“No troubles, Aki. Just try and get that back to me by end of shift, ok? Or at least before there’s another natural disaster…” Akihito kept his gaze focused on the button panel inside the elevator car as he let the door slide close.

“Will do”, he muttered, not willing to lay bets on the odds of that ever happening.

 

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The Top Three Badasses of Sion had already gone through the mind-numbing post-agreements analysis, plotted moves and counter moves several months in advance, had done their planning for combining multi-national forces and shifting resources about, allocated specific funds into various war chests for now, later, and “down the road”, had settled in to relax in their ultra comfortable, ridiculously sky-high, overpriced, just-for-the-label lounge chairs, enjoyed their 3rd round of expensive drinks and pricey hand rolled tobacco tubes, and had just started to gossip like a gaggle of preteens about their boys when Suoh got a message from the trio’s “nanny” downstairs that the blond was on the elevator up to their floor, and had added a head’s up: Aki’s scent was off. He smelled gamey from stress and anger, and he was keeping a white-knuckled clamp on his emotions.

Hearing the message, Kei took a mock scolding tone with the Alphas, wondering if the photographer suspected Asami’d resumed his trifling ways and was cruising the preschool, picking out a new victim for cradle robbing. As Ryuichi levelled a dry-as-the-desert look at his right hand man, his other Beta chimed in, saying if all else failed, there were still four pups that hadn’t lost their milk teeth yet. Asami was just about to defend himself from these deviant accusations, considering how close in age all their love interests were, by using the time-honoured argument among males that the other two could just fuck right off, when something small and hard bounced off the side of his head and landed with several clinks into his hideously priced whiskey inside the insanely expensive crystal tumbler.

Displaying his multitasking skills, he glanced down at the end table beside him even as his hand came up to touch his owie. And he really didn’t like what he saw there: the Asami stone wolf crest, draped over the frigid cubed rocks that cooled his drink. Looking up, his boy’s stance just inside the doorway took away any demands or recriminations that he was about to make. His kitten was barely holding it together, and yet still trying to hide his emotions while the stink of fear, aggression and heightened nerves rolled off him. Thinking only of comforting and gathering his upset boy into his protective arms, Asami was stopped dead in his tracks when Akihito took a wary step back. “Akihito…?”

“There’s your ownership tag back. Wanted to make sure I returned it before I left. Didn’t need you to mistakenly think you had to come after me if I took it.”

Kirishima intruded into the silence as his Alpha seemed thrown by his boy’s words. “Takaba? What’s this all about?”

“It’s about this,” he said, as he tossed the data stick over the back of the chair and onto the coffee table. “It’s true, some people are so crafty, their left hand doesn’t know what their right hand’s doing. I think maybe your boss’ thumb and little finger don’t know who his middle finger’s flipping off, but HE knows all about this.”

Glancing at Ryuichi, Kei picked up the data device and uploaded it to his laptop. Clicking on the file, he turned it so all three of them could see the screen. And all three had a mental meltdown of various degrees as they watched the scene unfold. From where he stood, Suoh flinched and scowled, like he’d gotten brain freeze from slurping up an ice cold drink too fast. Kirishima’s face went pale as he pushed up his glasses and wordlessly turned to his boss. Asami’s blank, emotionless mask slammed down over his face as he looked first at one, then at his other man. Aki had taken two quick steps back towards the door when Asami spoke.

“Where did this come from.” Not ‘wtf’, ‘you don’t seriously believe this, do you’, or some other bullshit, just straight to business. Probably why he was so successful, so young.

“I’d ordered a mini camera online that I thought might help with surveillance, so I hid it in the security locker room while we were away, thought I’d make a disc for a mock presentation to Suoh. Well, surprise!, no good deed goes unpunished…” The leader of Sion started to turn towards his boy when Kei put a hand on his arm, slowing him down for a moment. He sighed, then murmured “I’ll do it”, figuring his Wolf's less imposing size might somehow lessen the shock. Knowing this was an immense step in their relationships with this boy and his friends, and that it had come about in error too soon, he slid off his jacket and vest, lay then over the back of his chair, then loosened his shirt from his belt and pants that dropped as Aki started shaking his head in denial, trying to wish this all away. Kei stepped around in front of the coffee table, just in his shirt and underwear, his shoes and socks left behind, then removed his tie and glasses as the blond started trembling and whispered pleadingly “no, no, don’t, gods, please don’t”.

Kirishima didn’t want to traumatize the boy. He'd brought with him Kazumi’s love interest and his own Kou, and he made their friend and leader far happier then when he’d been alone in his darkness. But, if the blond was going to be scarred by the truth too soon, it sure as hell wouldn’t be Ryuichi he’d be terrified of. Undoing the buttons on his shirt and removing his cuff links, Asami’s best friend stepped out of his pooled underwear, avoided looking at the other two men in the room as he faced Akihito, and changed. Akihito was pale, with wide, stricken eyes locked onto the sandy-grey creature standing a little ways in front of him. He wanted to scream, but he couldn’t draw enough breath. A big dark shape loomed up in front of him, but before he could even try to throw up his arms to protect himself, he was enveloped in Asami’s embrace. He stiffened like a log in his arms, craning his neck, trying to see where that… thing... was.

The monster that was Kirishima (Kou’s Kirishima!) was quietly lying down where it had been, not making a sound, or even looking at him. Asami’s broad back was between him and it. Ryuichi was keeping him safe, Ryuichi was protecting him…

Ryuichi knew all about Them. He knew who They were. He knew which of his people They were. Dropping down and away through Asami’s arms into a squat, Aki straightened up as he stepped away from the tall, dark man. Backing further towards the door, he saw that the head of Sion was left holding onto his bag of clothes and stuff, looking at it blankly before dropping it and stepping towards him, talking to him, likely trying to calm him down, but he wasn’t listening. Every step back he took, Asami took a longer stride towards him. He was paying so much attention to the danger stalking towards him that he didn’t hear the disturbance in the outer office until it was too late.

A tipsy, rowdy Kou and Takato had come looking for their Aki-chan, leaning into each other to stay upright, concentrating so hard on moving forward together that they didn’t look where they were going until they’d plowed right into the back of him. Takato managed to stay upright by clinging to the blond, but Kou did a major face plant into the thick carpeting in the hallway that lead past Kirishima’s office and out to the elevators. Groggily looking up from his vantage point on the floor, he had a pretty good view into Asami’s office, and saw (what to him was) a pretty big, mean looking dog partially in a shirt he last saw his Kei wearing. Considering his state of mind and the lack of blood in his alcohol system, he jumped to the only conclusion that made ANY possible sense: “Oh my gods HE ATE KEI!! That doggo ate Kei! Nooo!” He was crawling, crying, towards the beast, perhaps intent on somehow trying to save his man, and went head first into the doorframe. He curled up into a bawling, snotty, hysterical mess even as Kirishima turned back to a human, shrugged off the ragged remains of his shirt and quickly hauled on his pants and jacket before going to scoop up and comfort his boy on the floor.

Takato, meanwhile, not fully comprehending what had taken place, automatically went to his default position in any stressful situation, and shoving off of his buddy Aki, began weaving his way past Asami and the pair on the floor at the the office door, and loudly began blaming Suoh. For everything. Which might have been hurtful and/or insulting if his accusing finger had been pointed anywhere in the general direction of the big man. As the tallest of the boys stumbled close by, Kazumi’s strong arms reached out and gathered him safely in, pinning him in close to his body, muffling his drunken ranting for everyone’s sake. As soon as his heart started beating again after their collision, Akihito realized that he was the only one who knew the truth and was in danger for it, and belted down the hallway, desperate to get away. Asami followed, still trying to talk the photographer down without frightening him even more. The head of Sion caught his boy partway between the far fire stairs and the last elevator door, snagging the camera bag strap over his shoulder and temporarily yanking his boy to a stop.

Backing away as far as the strap and Asami’s reach would allow, he turned and faced his threat head on. “What, you gonna try and tell me again how you want us to have a relationship built on trust? That bullshit isn’t going to fly you lying sack of shit. Just let me go, and you’ll never hear from me again. Them two in there won’t even know their own names in a couple of minutes, just tell them we fought and I left. They’re still good, they’d believe this was all part of a movie they saw, they could have a good life here. Just let go!”

Asami, himself at the end of his rope for the night, tightened his grip on the strap. “Damn it, Akihito, will you listen to me! I’ve been trying to tell you, trying to explain this to you! These are my people, my family, my clan, my Pack. We were trying to introduce you all slowly to this idea, to get you used to it, to want to join us. Akihito, we want you to be with us!”

“And why in the hell would I want to be a monster like you?!”

“Because you ARE one of us, kitten!”

Akihito’s shocked face made the fixer aware he’d said the wrong thing at the wrong time. A loud crash from his office and louder voices made him turn away from his little love for just a second to make sure no other threats to Sion were looming on the horizon. When he turned back, he realized his second mistake too late: he was alone, left holding Aki’s camera bag even as the fire door closed on the stairway.


	18. Scent and a Sound

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Aki-chan slipped through Sion's security and disappeared. Asami's not happy, Mutt's not happy, Kou as well as Kei, and most especially Takato and Souh aren't happy, never mind the Liu Brothers; ain't nobody happy. And then Ryuichi hears from someone who's even less happy than all of them combined.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi everybody. Please thank all those who kept nudging me along to update. Now, this chapter is short, I'm warning you now: I had finished the story, but I didn't like the second half and rewrote it several times, but still, nada. Besides, the whole thing would involve bathroom breaks, getting snacks, leg cramps, that kinda thing, so, I cut it in half. Don't worry, I'll post the second half by the end of October; a werewolf story just in time for Hallowe'en.

 

 

Dawn was breaking on the third day of the blond's disappearance. Asami watched the sky brighten from his desk, seeing it only as another indictment of his failure to find his boy. Sion security teams had been scrambled within minutes of calling the boys’ guard downstairs, in the vague hope that he might have gone back to his apartment, though the prepped bags he’d come up to this office with rather put the kibosh on that idea.

To put it mildly, the normally put-together CEO of Sion International looked like shit. He hadn’t slept since Akihito fled, wouldn’t eat, and sustained himself primarily on large amounts of nicotine and liquor. Only leaving his office to use the facilities and to clean up and change his suit jacket and shirt for a few web conferences Kirishima couldn’t cancel or reschedule, he and the Wolf remained alert even as a silent Kou slept in Kei’s arms on the couch, and an angry/worried Takato and an unhappy Kazumi slept in alternating shifts on the other couch, as the boy had decided they weren't speaking yet, and quietly fussed with the blanket one would spread over the other currently sleeping fitfully underneath it. No one else had left, despite all the recriminations and shock when the truth had been revealed to them in person the next morning. Kou had only tentatively talked to Kie’s sandy brown Wolf to establish that Kei was still present and alright while in that form, and seemed somewhat reassured that there was two different beings present, while Takato had glared suspiciously at Asami and Kazumi as if suspecting them of having eaten the photographer, repeatedly demanding to talk to Akihito to make sure he really was ok. What the boys would do when and if their bro came back or was returned to them remained up to uncomfortable speculation.

Alpha Wolf, meantime, had been searching, trying to find the least whiff of a mental lead to its opposite. The fact that the white Wolf hadn’t even attempted to contact him while the boy slept worried him. As far as they knew, the boy hadn’t been in contact with his own Wolf yet, and hadn’t suspected he was one of them until Asami’s ill-timed lapse. He wouldn’t know yet if he could block his Wolf from communicating if he wanted to, or how one of them could lock the other away in their shared mind, if it came to that. Therefore, the only reasonable choices were that his Wolf thought that communication would be detrimental to the blond right now, even damaging, or something bad had happened to Akihito, and the Wolf had forced a change to somehow keep its boy alive. The Wolf form would be able to survive longer without water than Aki would, but not as long as a human could without food. That kind of situation would only be a “six of one, half a dozen of the other” at best, and would be draining enough without trying to bridge any real distance apart.

The fact that Asami’s boy hadn’t reached out to anyone, though, after sixty-odd hours, and was still unable to be located; THAT was the most frustrating part. The call on day two he made to the Liu brothers' head office in Hong Kong was very aggravating for the put-upon Asami. Fei Long had enthusiastically berated him for his handling of the situation, then, once calmed down some, had offered to co-ordinate with the Arbatovs to keep a watch out for the boy wherever any of them had operatives. He also said he’d handle telling Yoh and Tao, (which, Asami would admit, was a surprising relief to him), as long as Tokyo's Alpha “got his head out of his ass” and FOUND Akihito.

That first night, after Tadao'd not only reported back that the blond hadn’t returned to his floor, but that he’d also heard someone running down past the door on the fire stairs, Asami had entered the stairwell, stripped down, turned Wolf and gone after their boy himself. What immediately stopped him from rushing down the stairs headlong was the fact that after the first two floors, they could both smell the fear and confusion where Aki had passed, and that he had only gone down a couple of flights before starting to panic and leaping over the railing down to the next flight of stairs below despite there being a 2 metre (almost 6 foot) gap between one railing and the next, a safety measure put in place to avoid evacuating people from bunching up on the mid floor landings. As much as he didn’t want his boy to run like this, he also didn’t want to terrorize his Akihito into thinking he was being hunted down.

He followed the scent into the maintenance area door between the guards locker rooms and showers, and the Sion building workers areas; and went through those doors, probably using the borrowed security swipe card to gain access into the tunnels with miles of pipes, electrical conduits and countless hiding places. They had nosed around, backtracked and gotten confused by multiple layers of Akihito’s scent trails meandering all over the place. Their boy was a curious, fearless explorer; no wonder he’d lost his security detail down here numerous times.

Forced to finally give up, he went up to the blonde’s apartment, completely ignoring the bowed, apologetic Tadao waiting by the elevator, and went into Aki’s apartment. Seeing the disaster of food containers, wrappers and crushed beer cans all over the living room, he was amazed that the boys hadn’t succeeded in killing their own livers yet. Proceeding into the bedroom, he could smell the anger, hurt, crushing panic and uncertainty around the foot of the bed before a sense of determination had set in, which lead over to the drawers, and his tablet and phone being abandoned there. Their little Akihito had decided to flee even before confronting them up in the office. He was only going up there to see if things would be safe for his friends with "deniable plausibility".

Asami sat down on the bed. Of all the people he had pursued, slept with, conquered and discarded without a thought or care, their little one’s deliberate abandonment left a cold, aching hollow place in them both. Finally getting up, he left the apartment, closed the door after him, and went to the elevators, still ignoring the bowed, apologetic Tadao. By the time the door slid open and Asami-sama silently entered the car without even glancing at him, the young guard had never felt his existence so completely and thoroughly dismissed in all his life. Which was likely for the best. When the Boss was in this kind of mood and took notice of something, VERY BAD THINGS tended to happen soon afterwards.

 

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As the third evening of waiting began, food was brought up to the office once more, even though there hadn’t been a lot of eating going on. Some pecking by the boys here and there among the food trays went on, only to have them packed away largely undisturbed a little later and sent to the security team lunchroom downstairs. Not many outside Suoh’s teams knew what was going on, but the absence of the trio of boys, plus the Alpha and his two Betas, was noticed. The odd text received by various friends, acquaintances and co-workers of theirs, asking if anyone had seen or heard from their Alpha’s little blond, had people talking and rumors starting to spread within the complex and beyond to Sion Corporate. Something had happened, and unease was creeping through the Pack across Tokyo.

Asami, meanwhile, was seated in his work chair after Tao had called him and ripped a strip off his ass about the whole affair. When Asami had pointed out that Akihito had ditched his devices behind, meaning he wasn’t planning on contacting anyone, the boy had started yelling, forcing Yoh to remove his physically from the call before calmly, if not coolly, taking over. The odd thing was, Asami wasn’t gazing out the window like he did in his Sion office while he smoked and did his contemplation, here, he seemed more like he was trying to stare through a wall without quite realizing it. His Wolf had noticed this, of course, as he had noticed a lot of odd little things that were out of character for his Baka. Then again, neither of them had ever been in a situation where they’d developed feelings of such a magnitude of protectiveness and caring for someone, then had that person up and flee on them. His own instincts were torn between ensuring the safety of his Pack in troubled times like this, and saying fuck it all and going out into the city himself to search for Akihito. And in the end, all he could do was sit here on his Baka’s ass and wait. This didn’t improve his frame of mind. at. all.

‘ _So, what are you doing to find him?’_

_“I don’t know what to do, Mutt. Any suggestions?’_

Sigh. ‘ _N_ o. It’s maddening. Where can one boy go that we can’t find him?’

‘ _The Tokyo prefecture alone has over 13 million people over almost 2,200 square kilometres (850 square miles). One boy could hide anywhere in it. Don’t forget, he’s used to wiggling into spots one of us wouldn’t send our pups into.’_

‘ _Speaking of, should we enlist our high school students to help search for him? They may have ideas, or heard of places that the adults wouldn’t even think of.’_

‘ _Hm, that may work. Let Kei’s people make a list of possible volunteers, then contact their parents in the morning, see how many we can form up into teams. Maybe Kou and Takato would want to help with that.’_

‘ _And another night will go by without any word from him…’_

_‘Do you think this is easy for me? The last few people that caused me anywhere near this much aggravation and worry, they wound up disagreeing with you eating them; and then they ended up giving you gas. How would that help in this situation?’_

‘ _Fine, fine. We thought we were doing all the right things, following the program, and it still blew up in our face. How the hell does he DO that to us?’_

‘ _Because our little kitten is a force of nature all unto himself, that’s how.’_

_‘Well, if he keeps making us worry and feel like crap for something we didn’t do, then I may end up eating him myself too.’_

“ _Do it, and I’ll tear you open from the inside to get him out.’_

_‘That you would, Baka. That you would.’_

Asami had finally dozed off lightly, hand covering his eyes, elbow on his desk propping his head up, when he heard something like a weak, distant sob. Looking up, he realized he was in his Wolf’s mind space, the Mutt apparently nearby but not doing or saying anything. Standing up, looking around, he listened intently, trying to decide on the direction the sound was coming from. Narrowing in on it, he set off at a quick pace, leaving his office floor, going to the main level of the building, then heading outside and off through the parkland, the darkness giving him no reason to pause. Coming to the fence line, he followed it towards the centre of the lot where he came upon the gate, unlocked it, and passed through. He heard and felt the call stronger up ahead. Pushing on through the obstacle course and the jogging trail areas, he braved the autumn grasses and dried wildflowers to the other side of the field. Stopping at the chain-link fence, he looked over into the dark area, sensing that there were several different outbuildings and large sheds in various states of disrepair and neglect. Where the noise was coming from was beyond that, sounding almost like it was echoing from a larger empty space. Scaling the swaying fence, (because while Asami may be the undisputed Lord of the Japanese Underworld now, he had still been a snot-nosed punk kid at one time), he swung over the top and dropped silently down to the ground, pulling off a “superhero landing” (without tearing his tailored pants) that would’ve, he was sure, made Aki turn a glowing pink in admiration. Scouting the area, he spied a fair sized storage building with a door that looked like it would give without too much trouble, and worked his way up to the building. Inside, the call wasn’t so much sobbing now, as a low, hurt howl broken up with intermittent panting and moans. Moving swifter now, Asami bypassed various mounds of debris and discarded building materials to stop in front of a small avalanche of rusted metal sheeting. Unable to narrow down further where the sounds were coming from, he stopped and tried calling out softly ‘ _Akihito_?'

All noise stopped for a moment, then a quiet ‘ _Asami?’_ came back.

‘ _It’s me. You are his Wolf, correct? Where are you and my boy? Are you both alright?’_

_‘No. We’re injured. I forced the change in his sleep on day two when things got too dangerous for Akihito. He’s been three days without food and water, and we’ve got a persistent bleed. We need help.’_

_“Did the boy cut himself climbing the pile and it shifted on him, burying you both?’_

_‘No. He was on the upper level, heading towards an office he knew about when the wooden platform ends slipped from the braces and part of the flooring tilted and spilled him off. When he was done bouncing off every hard piece of crap he could find, the upstairs platform came down altogether and pushed everything over on top of us. He was in a pocket on the floor, but a corner of corrugated metal keeps pressing further down into us, below our rib cage and diaphragm. If we keep bleeding, I’ll get weaker, and neither of us will need to worry about tetanus.’_

Looking upwards, Asami couldn’t even tell where the upper floor had been. ‘ _Is Akihito awake right now, or did you have to render him unconscious?’_

All was quiet, until a tentative voice was heard. _‘I’m awake, Asami.’_

_‘How are you, kitten?’_

‘ _Uncomfortable. Sore. Cold. We’re both hurt and hungry. We could use some water. And I guess you and I need to have a talk about this “development”, huh.’_

Asami sighed, looking at the pile of scrap metal in front of him. ‘ _We do, but this wasn’t the ideal way to go about that talk, was it?’_

_‘Really, I’ve got nothing better to do right now anyways. And for once, you’d be pretty certain I wasn’t going to turn around and fuck off on ya…’_

The big Alphas huffed. ‘ _If that’s all it took, I would have tied you up long ago. You’d look good only in a leather collar and a chain leash.’_ Akihito sputtered, then gasped and groaned.

Asami stopped short at that. ‘ _Kitten, are you alright?’_

‘ _Yeah yeah, old man; I’m good. It only hurts when I laugh. Fortunately, that wasn’t much of a problem, ‘til now.’_

_‘That’s right, blame me for everything, brat.’_

_‘Listen: can you two hairless apes stow the tearful reunion shit until we’re safe, hydrated, full, warm and comfy, and oh yeah, maybe THE FUCK OUT OF HERE?!?!’_ That raised Asami’s eyebrows.

‘ _Right, my bad. Ah, Asami, have you met my “spirit animal”? Kind of a real cranky bitch.’_

Asami could feel a chuckle starting in the back of his mind, and realized it was about to get rather crowded in there with the addition of his Mutt. ‘ _I’ll leave my Wolf with you both while I bring help. I’ll only be gone a short while, then we’ll get you both out of there. Any requests for when I come back?’_

_‘A wagyu beef roast, chopped, uncooked, and unseasoned for me, and some good hot stew for Akihito.’_

_‘And beer.’_

_“Alkie.’_

Asami smiled, somewhat relieved as he left his Wolf’s mental space and came back to himself in his office. If his kitten hadn’t wanted beer, he’d have been worried. Straightening up at his desk, he was just about to summon his Betas when he realized that Kei was at his office door, calling to Kazumi. Waiting for his men, he turned and looked at the wall he’d been mindlessly staring at for the past couple of days. “Anything, Ryuichi?”

Nodding, he stood and started issuing orders both for search and rescue and security teams, first aid and emergency equipment; several rescue vehicles in case they had to bring the pair home in relays back to the clinic, and lots of portable lights, flashlights and safety gear. And to have the requested food items ready. Striking a match for his first smoke of the day (because he wouldn’t smoke there, not knowing what all might be stored in that building, and he was sure it was going to be a long day), he took in a deep breath and waited ten beats before exhaling. “Suoh, what’s out there, from the direction of this side of the building?”

Kazumi stopped and frowned, turning his head to orient himself. “That way is the field behind the main building and lunch area. It heads off towards where you and your boy spent the day chasing your balls.”

Asami half grinned as he smoked. “And beyond that?”

“That’s the rest of the property, then the industrial park. Nothing back there but some abandoned buildings.”

“And one sorry little kitten, gone to ground.”

 

~tbc~


End file.
